Wind Energy

Italy: 7,000 municipalities use renewable sources

6,993 Italian municipalities have at least one plant for energy from renewable sources (5,580 in 2009 and 3,190 in 2008). Clean sources are today present in 86% of municipalities: 6,801 municipalities have solar power (83.9% of the total), 297 have wind power, 799 have mini-hydroelectric and 181 have geothermic, 788 have biomass.

This is the basic mapping of renewable sources on Italian territory which emerges from the league for the environment Legambiente’s report, ‘Comuni rinnovabili 2010’ (Municipalities with renewable energy 2010), produced in collaboration with GSE (state-run power management agency) and Sorgenia, presented today in Rome.

For solar power, the municipality of Craco, in the province of Matera, is at the top of the chart (which rewards circulation per number of residents) with an average of over 542 kW per every 1,000 inhabitants.

In the solar thermal power, the small municipality of Fie allo Sciliar (in the province of Bolzano) is the winner with an average of 1,152 square metres per 1,000 inhabitants.

There are 51 municipalities that have already reached the target fixed by the EU of 264 m2 per 1,000 inhabitants. Municipalities with wind energy total 297 for an installed power equal to 5,148 MW – 1,287 MW more than in 2009 – which satisfies the electricity demand of over 4,100,000 families (192 municipalities are autonomous in terms of electricity).

There are 799 municipalities with mini-hydroelectric power (plants up to 3 MW) capable of producing over 2,860 GWh per year, equal to the electricity demand of 1,100,000 families.

There are 181 municipalities with geothermal power with a production of some 6,600 GWh per year of electrical energy for a demand of over 2,640,000 families.

There are 788 municipalities with biomass, from which 7,161 GWh are produced per year, equal to an electricity demand of over 2,860,000 families.

The number of district heating plants is increasing (355), whilst there are 286 municipalities in which plants use ‘real’ biomass, and 825 municipalities which, thanks to one new renewable source, produce more electrical energy than the families consume. ”In 2009 – stated the president of Legambiente Vittorio Cogliati Dezza – the growth of renewable energies was enormous, with a 13% increase in production, and this demonstrates how reliable and competitive these technologies are today”.

The actions undertaken by many Italian municipalities, said Nando Pasquali, CEO of GSE, are making ”an important contribution to the national race to reach the aims put in place by the EU, and also to a solid national policy of incentivisation.”

www.legambiente.eu/