While the Tuscania wind farm project (16 wind turbines 250m high with a total power of 90MW) was re-proposed following the first phase of observations and the filing of numerous additions, a new project in the area was published a little while ago of Castel Giorgio-Orvieto, with 7 turbines of 6MW each. To the east of the lake between Montefiascone and Bagnoregio looms a project with mega-wind turbines, and in addition smaller plants with power of just under 1MW are planned and partially implemented, scattered throughout the area.

To counter the Tuscania project, citizens and active associations (including BLEU) have sent numerous observations to the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITE) which will be published shortly on the MITE website. Many critical aspects of the project are highlighted: the heavy impact on the landscape, the fact that municipal corridors are deprived of their “unalterable purpose for agriculture, forest and animal husbandry”, pollution from microplastics released into the environment due to deterioration of the blades (according to a Norwegian study), and last but not least, the critical issues highlighted by the lake concerning:

• inadequate and superficial examination of the local fauna: the study is sketchy and incomplete, and presents an erroneous assessment of the risk of killing birds by turbines;
• violation of the provisions of the Habitats Directive;
• insufficient discussion of the risk to public health from breakage or detachment of a blade or collapse of the turbine;
• insufficient discussion of alternatives to the wind farm.

The deficiency addressed in the last point applies to all the projects listed above, which without exception fail to consider the obvious alternative that would reduce the impact on the environment and the landscape: namely, locating the wind turbines in the nearby sea. This can be done far from the coast; however, their influence on the marine ecosystem must be carefully examined. An alternative with enormous potential for Italy, but inexplicably neglected, while in Europe and elsewhere in the world offshore plants have been built for many years, with obvious advantages: minimum environmental impact and better energy efficiency, thanks to favourable wind conditions and the fact that it is possible to implement systems with greater power in the sea (close to the current technological limit of 20MW per wind turbine).

This solution would make it possible to protect the landscape and the environment, while at the same time meeting the need for an ecological change.