Italy’s debate on alternative energy cranks up

Italian government officials took to newspapers on Saturday to promote alternative energy, including banned nuclear power, as a debate over the country’s heavy dependence on power imports cranked up.

“We are not giving up on nuclear even if it’s not our immediate answer,” Economic Development Minister Pierluigi Bersani told La Repubblica newspaper in an interview.
“It’s important not to miss the technology train … in the future, there will be smaller plants without the problems of waste. Why reject those now?” he said.

Italy, which is heavily dependent on imports for its power needs, rejected nuclear power in a referendum in 1987. Recent years have seen politicians and industry tentatively reopen the debate each year ahead of the winter.

Italy needs to diversify energy supplies — especially for gas where imports total 85 percent of needs. Shortfalls in gas supplies from Russia hit the country in a harsh 2006 winter.

Last week, the country’s biggest power producer Enel said there could be blackouts this year because Italy did not have the infrastructure for alternative supplies — a push for reluctant regional administrations to open up to building of gas terminals.

In 2008, Italy is due to complete an 8 billion cubic meters offshore terminal for gas imports — an alternative to its heavy use of pipelines, which Russia’s move proved were unreliable.

Bersani said his policies for industry focused on innovation, on energy efficiency technology and sustainable transport, adding companies themselves had eagerly turned to photovoltaic energy and ecological buildings.

Reuters