The fierce battle to move away from fossil fuels has been and continues to be fought, but we must not let it stop. There is now a sizable renewable energy industry, but in Italy, where I live, it has been brutally hijacked by profiteers masquerading as environmental activists. This is a classic “business as usual” tactic, just the latest chapter in the consumer capitalism playbook that has brought us to the brink.
system
The environmental transition repeats the exact same tactics used by fossil fuel companies, except with the moral authority of saving the planet. Yesterday I was an oil king, today I am a wind turbine king! This has to change. Using renewable energy as an excuse, we are piling up giant solar farms on our farmland and littering our countryside with thousands of gigantic wind turbines, ruining our ancient landscape and endangering the health of local residents. Exposure is not allowed.
Our land is our only capital and natural environment, giving us happiness with its space, tranquility, richness and beauty. Allowing the energy market to control its value is a recipe for disaster.
In Europe, different models exist for solving energy problems. Germany, Europe’s largest industrial power, is adamantly averse to nuclear power and has invested heavily in renewable energy, particularly wind turbines, with 30,000 currently sprawling across the countryside.
These, like sunlight, are intermittent energy sources. When the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, Germany uses a backup system of coal-fired power plants, lignite-fired power plants, or gas power plants. Germany, like other developed countries, needs electricity, so these power plants must always be on standby. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This has a serious impact on our ability to reduce net carbon emissions. Fundamental changes in economic, financial and social systems are even more essential and urgent.
bureaucratic
I am observing a “green migration” in the Tussia countryside in central Italy, home to the ancient Etruscans and visited by millions of people every year. It’s a beautiful place to live. There are lakes, ancient caves, vines, mushrooms and mozzarella, and of course the majority of the population makes a living from food and tourism.
In the 12 years I’ve lived here, we’ve experienced unpredictable, unseasonal weather events throughout the year that increase temperatures by 3 to 4 degrees in the summer and disrupt flora and fauna. Floods, droughts, fires, and crop destruction are common here as they are everywhere.
I don’t consider myself a Luddite. I have long been aware of the potential effects of climate change. I moved to Italy to become independent from the public sector. I bought a house on a hill with its own well and enough land to grow food. I installed solar panels with storage batteries at my home, allowing up to 80% electric self-driving. It uses electricity to cook, heat, and drive. Ironically, I’m writing this article right now in the midst of a power outage following a storm.
Home is mostly carbon free, but not silicon, lithium, or copper free. The materials used to harvest “green” energy must come from somewhere. I aim to be carbon neutral, but it’s very difficult to reconcile carbon neutrality with modern lifestyles.
Italy is a very conservative society. With 58 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, there is much to conserve. It is also steeped in bureaucratic glue, slowing down plans to ease and revitalize the green transition. After the coronavirus outbreak in 2021, Italy was provided with a huge EUR 200 billion in subsidies and loans for this very purpose, which must be spent by 2026.
customs duty
The government has not developed a coherent strategy or clear legal framework for where and how renewable power plants can be set up. The country is in desperate need of some form of energy sovereignty, but it has very few “fixed” reserves of its own and imports 97 percent of its oil and gas, for example. The only other consistently low-carbon energy source is nuclear power, but even this energy source has its problems. Italians rejected a return to nuclear power in two referendums in 1987 and 2011, choosing instead to import nuclear power from France and Switzerland.
However, in Italy there has been much discussion about a new generation of nuclear power plants that are smaller, faster, safer and cheaper to build. Giorgia Meloni’s government has been supportive, but critics doubt whether it will have the support of a majority in parliament. Let’s take a look…
With no government guidance to follow, the situation is chaotic. With every big wind/solar project delivering a 30% risk-free return on investment over 20 years, armies of speculators arrive from all over Europe and it’s manna for boards and shareholders. These opportunists are now up against those who want to protect Italy’s food sovereignty, cultural heritage and tourism.
Italy is the land of sun, not wind, and there are plans to install 450 200-meter-high wind turbines in an area of just over 50 km between northwestern Umbria/Tuscany and the Mediterranean Sea. The ideal Italian landscape painted by da Vinci, Corot, and Poussin is in danger of being transformed from arable farmland to industrial wasteland.
Importantly, this is an area where there is not enough wind to generate enough electricity to justify the huge investment of money and resources. Wind farms need not worry, as they will receive a fixed “above market price” feed-in tariff from the government for 20 years, regardless of how much power they generate. A more sensible option (but not ideal) would be to take advantage of the 8000 km of coastline around Italy and place the turbines offshore.
habitat
Sardinia, one of Italy’s most beautiful and culturally important regions, is being severely affected by the large amount of renewable energy on land and sea that far exceeds its potential consumption.
The regional government passed a decree imposing a “moratorium” on further renewable projects in the region until the government develops a clear plan to distribute projects evenly and wisely across Italy. With no forward-looking plan, local government resistance, potential unrest across the country, and pressure from Brussels to spend €200 billion in grants/loans by 2026, the Italian government is facing the devil and the deep blue sea. I am caught in the middle.
This kind of situation is happening in many parts of the planet and we all have faced the fact that the world will not continue as before and that our systems and lifestyles will have to fundamentally change. Only when will it begin to be resolved…but how?
The first step is for local communities to take responsibility for producing, storing and distributing renewable energy. Every region of the world has meteorological and geographical characteristics that determine the region’s renewable energy mix, which must be balanced with due consideration to the surrounding landscape and habitat.
Redistribution
For example, in Italy, being the land of the sun, energy production is carried out in existing structures and already industrialized sites in local communities, such as parking lots, factories, warehouses, highway cuts, railway cuts, office buildings, etc. It is carried out from solar panels installed in the. Both apartments and houses.
A seminal paper by researchers Massimo Mazzer and David Moser was published in the journal April 2021. nature. It sets out a plan to power Italy based on the assumption that there is already enough solar panel construction to meet the EU’s 2030 renewable energy target with a surplus of 30 percent. be. Existing solar power plants need to be upgraded from 15-year-old technology to the latest generation of panels. There is no need to use any more arable fertile land.
One of the keys to implementing this plan is the creation of community energy communities, or community-based energy projects. This allows local residents and businesses to jointly invest in renewable projects for the production, storage and distribution of electricity. In Italy, the government has started subsidizing installation costs by up to 40%, and communities can also earn credits for additional clean electricity fed into the central grid.
Apart from the financial model, this system has many other benefits. This ensures that valuable interests for local communities, such as arable land and cultural assets, are protected. Energy begins to become a democratic benefit, reducing transportation costs for a more efficient and reliable electricity supply, lowering bills and creating local jobs.
Locally generated solar power can power a local “smart” hub for immediate use or be stored in a community-maintained battery system for overnight use. Excess supply is sold back to the grid for redistribution. In case of supply shortages, a fixed, constant source of supply produced by nuclear power or other non-carbon emitting sources should be used as a backup.
addiction
The focus must be on energy responsibility and democratization, not profits and corporate ownership. For this reason, energy conservation is important. We can no longer live in a world with unlimited energy, so our lifestyles must change. The era of fossil fuels must end.
This model does not work for temporary, non-community-based transportation. Once again, we need to implement a system of constant energy that can be increased and decreased in real time. Low-carbon nuclear power is currently the only option available, but other technologies will no doubt become viable in the future.
The price of electric cars is currently prohibitive for millions of people, and if fossil fuel transport were banned, many would have to rely on public transport or not travel at all. This indicates that it will no longer be possible.
This has the benefit of strengthening local communities, but can we put the genie back in the bottle? Is it possible for our world to return to a time of travel restrictions and travel bans? ?How are things distributed?
Throughout history, humans have been incredibly resourceful, but we seem to have reached a point where “civilization” and “technological progress” are hindering rather than enhancing our freedom.
Apart from inequality, we lose the freedom to rely on energy, trapped inside our smartphones living in a virtual world where we cannot exist without electricity. We must balance intelligence, creativity, labor and the resources available on the planet. Otherwise, energy addiction will destroy us.
this author
James P. Graham I’m an artist and an activist. He is a former trustee of the Resurgence Trust, which owns and publishes the following books: ecologist online.