La Campania It is credited as the pioneer region in the field of wind energy: 642 plants spread across the Campania region, including large industrial plants and mini wind farms; almost 2 gigawatts of power, which allow for the production of over 4 terawatt hours per year.
Third in Italy for installed power and second for energy production: one sixth of the Italian wind sector is made up of the Campania contribution. Legambiente Campania presented this morning the dossier "Qual buon vento", during the third Edition of the Wind Forum, which took place in San Marco dei Cavoti (BN) with the Patronage of ANEV, Cesvo Lab and the Municipality of San Marco dei Cavoti.
Wind power is the master in our region: it is the first renewable source of electricity, both in terms of power and production. Seventy-eight municipalities are the protagonists, mainly located in the Avellino and Benevento areas (almost 90% of the total municipalities). Wind power in Campania has developed since the mid-nineties, with gradual and constant growth year after year and peaks of greater installation in the years 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2019.
In the last 5 years, an average of about 100 MW per year has been installed: according to ANEV, in Campania we have a potential of 2030 MW by 3.300, which however we will reach with a ten-year delay according to this installation trend. Wind is the renewable electric technology with the greatest installed power in the Campania region: it represents 52% of the total, followed by solar (33%), hydroelectric and bioenergy, with 9% and 6% respectively.
Of a total of 78 municipalities in Campania involved in wind farm installations, the protagonists are the provinces of Avellino and Benevento, which cover 46% and 42% respectively. They are followed by the municipalities of the Province of Salerno with 11%, Caserta with 0,8% and Naples with 0,2%.
The municipalities with the highest installed power in absolute terms are Bisaccia and Lacedonia in the province of Avellino, with approximately 250 and 204 MW, and Foiano di Val Fortore in the province of Benevento with approximately 223 MW. “Campania – declared Mariateresa Imparato, president of Legambiente Campania – has become a lighthouse region for the development of renewable energy starting from wind power, an important model that we hope to find in the identification of suitable regional areas in line with the excellent work carried out in recent years.
Our hope is that the new season of wind energy in Campania will further strengthen the bond with the territories and communities, overcoming distortions and prejudices of the past, and that it will be accompanied by the development of industrial policies to support the supply chain, with the aim of making the energy transition in our region an important opportunity to increase employment and reduce inequalities.
To do this, it is necessary to start territorial paths to work together: institutions, businesses and citizens, so that we no longer talk about social acceptance for the presence of plants but about participatory regeneration of territories, where impoverishment and depopulation have increased inequalities for decades, today also exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Renewables must be the path to social redemption for these communities to win, together with the climate challenge, also the social and economic challenge.” Campania – writes Legambiente in the dossier – is the region that hosted the first plants installed in Italy in the mid-nineties and that today is giving life to the first repowering.
Numbers in hand, the various projects, among those already approved and those in the process of being approved, will lead to a decrease of 364 turbines in the territories. An even smaller occupation of land, fewer turbines on the horizon (eliminating the old problem of the forest effect of the first plants).
In 2024, compared to the previous year, there are 10 proceedings: 3 concluded and 7 under investigation, with a potential decrease of -256 wind turbines in the territory (to be added to those of the proceedings already authorized in previous years), which at the same time corresponds to an increase in power of +200 MW.
“Our country – declares Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente – is still today hostage to the old fossil and polluting production system. The time has come to free it.
Accelerating the ecological transition is not only a necessity to combat the climate crisis, but it represents an extraordinary opportunity to guarantee future employment to millions of people and to lower bills, especially in the South, where there are optimal conditions for the development of renewables.
In this sense, Campania is a protagonist of the energy transition, which has long since started a virtuous model that should be exported, and we hope it continues in this direction."
Of note, one of these projects is coming to life: it is a project in Montefalcone di Val Fortore (Benevento), the first city in Italy to have known wind technology. Right now, in these weeks, they are dismantling the first five turbines of the total 50: these turbines belong to the very first wind farm installed in 1996.
Article published on 27 February 2025 - 15:32
