Ancient Town, Green Energy

Wind Turbines

Tocco Da Casauria from Italy is full of white wing turbines that look over the city. They represent something extraordinary in Italy. Many small communities from the country have to pay very large energy bills.

These communities are known for the fact that they pollute more than they help the environment. The situation seems to change, as more and more communities from Italy are resorting to the green energy. The reason is money, but the most important thing is that the earth has to benefit from it. The Italian environmental group Legambiente conducted a survey this year, through which they found out that almost 1000 communities from Italy, now make more energy than they use. The reason for this change is the fact that they have resorted to the renewable energy plants. Tocco is one of the communities that benefited the most from the change.

The city no longer has to pay money for garbage removal fees and other similar ones, and now it even makes money from the extra energy it conserves. Tocco is a town made out of 2,700 people, located in a mountainous region. It has an old church, and a ruined castle; it is clear that it is lacking from the development point of view. The gritty bars are full of old men with rugged beards, and the markets are full of women. The most important event of the year for the people from Tocco is the olive harvest. From the energy perspective, Tocco is more advanced than many other cities and towns in the world. They have the wind turbines, but besides those, the solar panels illuminate many of the homes from the town, and the sport complex as well.

Edoardo Zanchini, who is in charge of Legambiente’s energy division, stated that usually when people think about energy, they think about very large power plants, but that is not always the case, and Tocco managed to prove it. He is impressed that such a thing happened in Italy, as not too many would have believed in a change of such proportions there. The European Union has constantly criticized Italy for its lack of effort when it comes to keeping the environment clean. The European Union stated that all the member countries should obtain 17 percent from their total energy production from green sources. Italy is far from being there and it is almost 100 percent certain that it will not hit the target by 2020. Nowadays, only 7 percent of the total energy produced by Italy comes from renewable energy sources.

The approach made by Tocco and other similar towns, not just from Italy but from many other countries as well, proves that the changes often occur because of economical reasons. Simply put it, the small settlements make the change because they can no longer pay the energy bills, and thanks to it, the whole country benefits. It is true, that the green energy obtained from these towns is very small, but even so, the change is worth making. The chances are that if the country would have been obliged to make the change with the purpose of promoting the green energy, it would have not done it.

Tocco was basically obliged to make the change, because the energy bills in Italy are extremely high.  Italy has to pay for the energy, more than any other country from Europe. It is almost certain that the price for the energy will grow even more this year, and because of that, the change was mandatory. In the same time, the costs for the alternative energy sources have been reduced a lot. In the United States of America the situation is different than in the case of Europe. In the U.S.A, the energy is very cheap, and that’s one of the reasons why people do not feel that they should make the change. The second difference is the fact that in Europe, the people who switch to alternative energy sources, receive incentive, and that does not happen in the United States. In countries where the regular energy is very expensive, and the alternative one is very cheap, people will resort to the alternative one. The switch happens in places where one would not expect such a thing to happen, the best example being Tocco.

Tocco has four wind turbines, and thanks to them, it is financially independent. It produces 30 percent more energy than it uses, and thanks to it, they made 170,000 Euros last year. The town now has the money to renovate many important buildings. Kieran McNamara, Italy desk officer for the International Energy Agency, said that these changes are not too influential when it comes to the total green energy use in the country. However, he said that the changes are important, especially for the community. He said that the main difference is made by the money, and that it is important that people do not have to pay as much as they did the prior years.

There are various reasons why Italy has to pay so much money for energy. First of all, the country does not have fossil fuels of its own, and until last year, the nuclear power plants were banned from the country. They have started the construction of these plants, and it will take ten years until they will be completed. There aren’t too many renewable energy projects in the country because the permitting procedures are very complicated. The type of renewable energy sources depends on the local resources. In order town, the wind turbines would have not been constructed because the wind is not powerful enough.

There are however, many different sources of green energy, such as hydropower or burning of agricultural waste. In Italy, the most popular green energy sources are the wind and the solar ones. Tocco is a great region for renewable energy sources, because the winds are very strong in that region. The change made by the city was great, and hopefully other cities from the world will make it.