Alberona, Italy
Mission Title: Income with the wind
Mission By: . Ventiquattro
Mission Finished on Date: 28-06-2008
SCRIPT
- Visit Alberona and the aeolic park.
- Show how the new structures affect the landscape appearance and the city life. Ask children, old people, students and workers about the changes they brought, both good ones and bad ones. Are the blades noisy? How are the incentives perceived?
- Interview mayor Giambattista Forgione about the advantages of installing the new structures. Ask him about the researches that were made to figure out the environmental impact.
- Go visit Faeto and the aeolic blades nearby. Ask the people about them and about Alberona. Is that a matter of luck?
TRAVEL BAG
How does a city deal with new forms of energy production?
Italy is not really the place for aeolic energy, and it gets even harder when the authorities try and sneak energy-providing installments over some hills, pissing off the people who live there. Since 2000, in Faeto, in the Daunian region of Puglia, the “Let's set the wind free” committee against “wild aeolic” has been struggling against the town administration, that let the Edison Energie Speciali company install several aeolic blades in the area and so affect the landscape appearance. Their point is not against the blades themselves, but rather against the officials' disregard of the people's opinion and little care for a public income maximization – e.g. harder taxation of the building company.
Other than Faeto, aeolic parks have also been placed in other towns like the Orange Flag award-winning Alberona – one the most beautiful towns in the country, according to the Italian Touring Club. Alberona's officials have been smarter than Faeto's and got a lot of tax cuts and incentives for their citizens. Money for families, no train ticket fee to go to school and work, no energy bill. Everybody seems to be ok with it, but a few doubts still remain. Legambiente president Francesco Tarantini is a bit worried for the region's officials giving the cities too much autonomy, and to focus too much on money-related arguments instead of environmental caution might be a little risky indeed.
Mission Report
We interviewed Alberona’s Mayor, Giambattista Forgione, and we talked about the project for aeolic energy in his region. He explained us why and where the blades have been set, and informed us about their dimensions and power, and the way they affect the landscape.
We visited the places where the blades are, and then we went in a school, where we interviewed some children, asking them if the blades were set up where do they live.
