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«There is a central government that is trying to impose a speculative burden on Sardinia, through decrees, that we have never seen before.» Driven by the mistral and mixed with the crackling of footsteps on stone, these are the words that, on November 30th, echo within the walls of the historic centre of Cagliari. Luigi Pisci, a militant of Sarcidano Territorial Defence Committee in Isili, where he founded a bookshop that serves as a vibrant cultural centre.
The square around is packed. In the island's south-eastern municipality, a demonstration is taking place in protest of the new‘Suitable Areas Decree‘for the installation of renewable energy systemsn.175/2025tens of thousands of hectares automatically become eligible for the construction of wind and photovoltaic parks, including large portions of agricultural and pastoral land, areas already marked by military easements or industrial and mining sites, contaminated sites, or those close to areas of scenic and archaeological value. Meanwhile, popular resistance fights against a model of development that promises sustainability and modernisation, but continues to produce depopulation, dependence, and loss of identity: green colonialism, the «extractive colonialism» of the green industry.
The race for renewables in Sardinia
In 2024, Sardinia has Eaten just over 7,800 GWh of energy, producing In contrast, more than 12,500 GWh, of which around one-third came from renewable energy sources (RES): an increase of 11% compared with 2022. By December 2024, there had been Allow me to introduce myself. progetti per la costruzione o ampliamento di impianti FER pari a 52,1 GW di potenza totale, fra solare ed eolico. Tradotto in termini di capacity factor, cioè provando a calcolare una stima della resa incrociando le ore effettive di produzione e le condizioni ambientali del Mediterraneo, l’isola arriverebbe a produrre 11 volte il proprio fabbisogno energetico, cioè circa 90.000 GWh. Anche se, stando ai milestones del Piano Nazionale Integrato per l’Energia e il Clima (PNIEC), basterebbe un incremento di soli 5,8 GW rispetto al 2023.
The European Green Deal and the PNRR have respectively given a strong boost to these investments in terms of policy guidelines and allocated funds. However, as Michele Zuddas, lawyer and activist, pointed out during a mid-autumn town assembly in Alghero, «while the European Union in its directives favoured local production for local consumption, i.e. proximity production,» it turns out instead that «this land is destined to have to produce for those who consume more energy,» in the words of Maria Grazia Demontis, spokesperson for. Gallura Coordination Against Energy Speculation, during the same meeting – that is, mainland Italy and, to a lesser extent, abroad, with a total of approximately 30% of energy exported.
Even the allocations of the PNRR – which allocated 40% of its total budget of 194.4 billion to the ecological transition – initially favoured small-scale, widespread installations, with 2.2 billion earmarked for Renewable Energy Communities (CERs), a scheme that enables citizens to obtain grants to install small-scale shared renewable energy installations. However, with the Plan’s revision in 2023, the REPowerEU chapter was introduced – the plan to reduce energy dependence on Russia and accelerate the green transition: the new resources, derived from sectoral reallocations, were allocated as non-repayable grants totalling 2.76 billion, whilst funding for RECs was reduced to 795.5 million. Priority has been given not to horizontal, widespread energy self-sufficiency, but to vertical, centralised self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile, Zuddas explains, «we are witnessing legislation that originates as emergency decrees, without any organic framework.» And with the new decree, «the difference is procedural, because in suitable areas there is a simplified procedure, while in areas not declared suitable, there is the ordinary procedure.» In theory, «the regulation of energy production and transport is a concurrent matter, meaning there must be an agreement between the State and the Regions, whereas in reality, we have dictates that arrive in the form of legislative decrees, without the involvement of the affected territories.» All of this «conflicts with the Special Statute of Sardinia, which is a constitutional law of the Italian State.» And considering that «our statute provides that urban planning is a matter of exclusive competence of the Region,» therefore «the identification of suitable and unsuitable areas falls mainly under urban planning because it is territorial governance.».
This political weakness of the Region, therefore, increases the independence movement present among various Sardinian citizens. «The autonomist revolution got off to a faltering start in 1948 because it clashed not with a federalist but a centralist state. The first step towards an independent condition is the capacity for self-government and self-determination,» states Pisci, but «this cannot happen in an ideological, mechanical, amateurish way»: suffice it to say that among the obstacles is a structural deficit of 5 billion that sinks the Region.
Compromised land: abandoned mines, disused industries and military bases
Nella regione del Sulcis-Iglesiente, a Nebida i volumi massicci in pietra e cemento della vecchia cava mineraria si affacciano sul mare con facciate cieche e finestre vuote, mentre i piazzali sono segnati da colature e crepe corrose dal sale, con la grande laveria che incombe dall’alto. Nel complesso, l’insieme appare come un’architettura sorretta più dall’abitudine che dalla stabilità strutturale, con un potenziale di musealizzazione mai attuato. Poco lontano, i capannoni di lavorazione metallurgica e i depositi di Eurallumina e della ex Alcoa-Alumix giacciono in rovina, testimoniando decenni di promesse di riconversione rimaste inevase.
The ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) estimate that remediation work on contaminated sites in Sardinia currently covers 6,772 hectares, equivalent to 0.3 % of the island’s total area, in addition to 1,506 hectares of work completed since 1999. Meanwhile, the Regional Reclamation Plan In 2019, a survey identified more than a thousand potentially contaminated sites, 25% of which were classified as medium-high or high priority: among these, the site The New Sardinia ha contact 404 landfill sites, 151 mining sites, 169 industrial areas, 257 fuel distribution sites, as well as 9 military areas.
The island, in fact, is home to the 65% unit of the Italian military estate and military facilities, and it map a surface area of 373.72 km2 taken from Citizenship, pari a più dell’1,5% della regione. Ne offre un esempio la parte meridionale della stessa area, dove un’enclave fatta di dune sabbiose e macchia mediterranea ospita il Poligono Militare di Teulada: 7.200 ettari per esercitazioni di tiro e addestramento di forze italiane e NATO.
War economies are highly energy-intensive, hence the need to expand the territories where these energy monsters are established. And this is imposed using the rhetoric of decarbonisation and climate change.
The Sardinian rural and archaeological landscape as a bulwark of identity
«We've seen projects that are a stone's throw from sites that are now UNESCO World Heritage. It almost seems as though the proposing companies have planted flags on a geographical map, giving the impression that they could freely ignore what was next door,» explains Pisci.
On a hill overlooking the Sulcis valleys, the fortress of Pani Loriga spreads out like a fortified terrace, where the remains of Phoenician and Punic dwellings emerge among the Mediterranean scrub and red earth. Further inland, the sacred well of the Nuragic age at Is Arenas, in Nuraxi Figus, is set into the ground and surrounded by vegetation that softens its outlines, bordered by archaeological outcrops suggesting a much larger context. Near both sites, proposals for Renewable Energy plants (FER) have been put forward.
«We cannot know the value of a nuraghe that has not yet been excavated, so we have also seen the possible loss of an enhancement that we have always awaited and which, due to this aggression, may never happen,» she continues.
Meanwhile, if the road from Oristano to Portoscuso shows the signs of that «industrial desert without a future and without prospects», as Pili defines it, and on which the FER renewables could deliver the final blow, continuing in the diametrically opposite direction, i.e. northwards, the coastal road to Alghero still offers «intact Sardinian rurality», untouched by major works.
«The rural world, time and again, has always made the food economy its raison d’être. 80% per cent was produced in Sardinia and 20% came from outside,’ notes Pisci, but now the percentages have been reversed. It is »the end of our landscape, and therefore of the very essence of our identity«, that is, a deep connection to a pre-colonial golden age, a flourishing past for all those ancient peoples who thrived on the resources offered by the island. »The only thing we had left for a painstaking attempt at redemption was the beauty of our landscape and our cultural heritage«, preserving a way of life linked to »a more natural way of being, an alternative to the excesses of urbanised life«.
And Claudia Zuncheddu, a doctor affiliated with’ Italian Association of Doctors for’Environment (ISDE) has repeatedly reiterated the unyielding advance of «land theft to transform Sardinia into an energy hub». One of these was in the southern city of Iglesias, last November 15th, during a public meeting aimed at discussing new offshore wind farm projects: because the phenomenon affects not only the land but also the sea.
Restricted waters: ecosystems threatened and fishing sacrificed
«Although not all of these projects will be realised – many overlap in the same areas – the sheer number of projects represents a certainly important piece of data that highlights not only the high potential of our country, but also the ferment in the offshore wind sector,» he states. Finally offshore 2025, a report compiled by Legambiente. The enthusiastic tones about the sector's growth, however, are not shared by the majority of those Sardinians who read about 24 new projects destined for the island, for a total of 996 turbines.
It's early November, and in Alghero, in one of those buildings that deviates from the characteristic Catalan style which so well marks four centuries of Spanish rule, the Gallura Coordination has organised a town hall meeting. Three offshore wind farm projects have been proposed for the area which, if approved, will extend over almost 800 km² with a total of 158 wind turbines.2 along the coast: Sardinia NorthWest, Mistral and Poseidon.
Among the thousands of pages of project proposals submitted to MESA, the organisers point to one as emblematic of how proposing companies perceive the Sardinian people. It reads that «ships used for fishing are characterised by very small displacements» and that, «in the extreme case of impact, it is not believed that such vessels can cause substantial damage to the floating structures of the wind farm». For Aldo, a fisherman, the perspective should be reversed: it is not the boats that should be considered a risk, but those large artificial windmills, capable of altering the routes of birds and aquatic mammals, pushing them towards fishing areas, with potentially devastating effects on the sector and the environment.
But sometimes the errors are even more elementary and, for their banality, impressive. The mathematician Agostino Conti points out that, in Mistral Project, there are indeed anemometer readings (which estimate, based on wind currents over a given period, how much energy an wind farm could produce in a certain area), but the observed time interval is missing from the charts. In one passage, the diameter would even be confused with the radius in geometric calculations on the circumferences of some components.
A few days earlier, along the east coast, in the small fishing village of Siniscola, the Gallurese fishermen had united in protest: one day before the end of the fishing activity ban, the measure valid for October had been renewed for the entire month of November. While the Port Authority seized leaflets and banners, in front of the cameras Pili denounced «the wicked wind projects» that hinder «the dignity of fishermen and the protection of the sea economy,» also highlighting the unpaid compensation for the “fishing ban decrees” that have followed one another between 2023 and 2024.
These kinds of measures are officially intended as a conservation measure for fish stocks, but protestors also identify offshore plant design seabed inspection projects among the motivations. And in this «layered superposition of failures,» Pisci reiterates, «this for us is an existential battle.».
A long history of top-down development plans
Sardinia's crisis, for Pisci and a large part of Sardinians, cannot be separated from «a series of development plans that were not indigenous.».
«Colonial genesis» is the forced integration of Sardinia into the Savoyard state in the 18th century, when the island passed into the hands of an external ruling class, which implemented a series of Piedmontese policies on the exploitation of forest resources. «We don't know if pig farming in the middle of the forest would have been convenient. However, the external trauma arrived, the colonialist who took 400,000 hectares of primary forest for the woodworking industry of the time,» he explains. «With the forests gone, spaces opened up for pastures, and so we became the greatest custodians of sheep heads»: a kind of «monoculture, exactly like coffee, cocoa, or nutmeg» in the great European colonies. The Sardinians suffered and adapted, but then came a phase of «Italian industrialisation mechanically transferred to Sardinian soil,» leading to the opening in the 1960s of the petrochemical complex at Porto Torres, the chemical plant at Ottana, metallurgical production at the sheds in Portovesme, and the large refinery at Sarroch, among others. «This way you can stop milking and finally put on your blue overalls.».
The Porto Torres plant no longer exists. It was progressively decommissioned with relocations from 2007 onwards. It is undergoing clean-up and includes an RDF plant. Sustained from the great fossil giant Eni. A similar fate befell the Ottana facilities, with the difference that currently they are not managed directly from Eni, but from one of its partner companies, Energy Dome.
If yesterday it was the Piedmontese, now «We are faced with the world of businesses that are bogus limited companies behind which are big investment funds and big energy giants, Italian and international». Who, Pisci claims, «simply think that these lands are uninhabited, and therefore they can do more or less whatever they want, also because those who still live there do not know how to make proper use of them».
The ports of Portovesme and Sarroch, on the other hand, are still operational but in crisis. The former is owned by the multinational Glencore, and sees recent and significant staff cuts and together with the Canadian Li-Cycle has announced a project to transform part of the site into a European hub for lithium battery recycling. Faced with soaring unemployment, «The South has been condemned to having to call for this production,» Demontis had clarified during the Alghero town assembly, which also means «the major trade unions are in favour, because the gas would go to power the last energy-intensive industries remaining to which the unions are physiologically attached.».
Sarroch, however, saw a significant decrease in profit. Its future is uncertain, also following environmental incidents and emission levels. under review.
Last but not least, in fact, the territories are emptying because «we are facing excess mortality compared to the rest of Italy», Zuncheddu had stated during the public meeting in Iglesias. Industry is blamed for the widespread presence of heavy metals, hydrocarbons and solvents, while the indiscriminate and massive presence of wind power is contested for the effects not only of noise pollution on the psyche, but also the consequences of soil contamination: «400 tonnes of cement and 600 tonnes of iron are needed to install a wind turbine», and furthermore, there are no guarantees for citizens regarding the disposal of the plants, considering that they have «an average lifespan of about 20-30 years». In parallel, if large and concentrated in a small area, «photovoltaic plants accumulate so much heat, subsequently released, as to cause damage to adjacent crops or livestock due to microclimate variations», explains Zuddas.
The paradox, the doctor had denounced, is that «Today we don't have healthcare services that allow us to learn what others are causing.» But if the crisis of the public health system is rampant throughout the country, there's still a way to do primary prevention: «Change the development models.».
An alternative proposal for a popular initiative
Il più dell’opinione pubblica sarda, intanto, non considera le istituzioni locali come vittime di Roma, ma come sue complici. «La Regione si è calata le braghe» lamenta Mauro Pili, giornalista e attivista nonché ex-presidente della Regione Sardegna: «La classe politica di questo territorio non ha alzato un dito per connivenza con i partiti nazionali».
The rift with local administrations irremediably widened when civil society presented an alternative bill on identifying suitable areas. This pertains to the Pratobello 24,has never been debated in the Regional Council. Zuddas, who is its official spokesperson, denounces that «the worst insult was to put a popular initiative law in a drawer, saying ‘the law is us’,» recalling how, in the scorching Sardinian summer and in just two weeks, more than 200,000 people had mobilised to sign it. Also because «We didn't set the condition of approving it,» he continues, «but that it be at least discussed.».
«We have asked for Sardinia to be divided into energy districts. Each district has its own characteristics, its own needs,» clarifies Pisci, making it clear that «the energy grid should be modernized first, and then a tailored transition made,» with regard for the CERs.
Zuddas clarifies: «The protest against energy speculation is not against renewable energy. What we are demanding is to be able to decide how and where to produce renewable energy.».
Internationalist anti-colonialism for a Fair winds to tomorrow's resistance
«They attribute it to a misunderstanding of the local context with regard to the technological value of progress,» reflects Pisci. «But what they call modernity has led 306 of our 377 municipalities into demographic decline. Therefore, they still need to explain to me what this modernity consists of, which, instead of enriching territories, empties them.».
During the demonstration in Alghero at the end of November, a young woman from the collective A doorway, a network opposing the military occupation of Sardinia, takes the floor: «To all those young Sardinians who see no future and are giving up, I say: it's not our fault, but it's our duty to react.».
Attualmente l’emigrazione è un fenomeno diffuso fra i giovani sardi piegati dalla crisi. «Da un punto di vista demografico siamo una preda facile perché sono rimasti soprattutto gli anziani e la proprietà della terra, a causa della crisi dell’agricoltura e dell’farming, non ha più quella valenza che poteva avere decenni fa» continua Pisci. E in caso di impianti FER, chi resiste senza vendere subisce l’esproprio per pubblica utilità.
In Zuncheddu's words, while «politics without morals is brigandage», «legal guerrilla warfare», as Pili defines it, is not enough. In a climate of «mistrust in politics and a crisis of militancy», as Zuddas points out, a presence, both in the public square and virtual, that is widespread and representative of the whole of society is essential: among the organisers of citizens' assemblies in towns located at opposite ends of the island, the same faces are often seen, while only a few young people are dedicated to digital activism.
Today, the mobilisations against Israel's crimes in Palestine seem to offer new intersectional horizons for struggle: «The big challenge now is to engage this new militant generation,» states Pisci, because «the forms of colonialism and supremacist ideology that one directly suffers are no less serious than those suffered by other peoples»: the distinction, if anything, is between settler colonialism and extractive colonialism.
«We are naturally awaiting this generational change with great necessity,» he continues, since «we cannot be turning over construction sites with retired workers. We cannot ask a generation that already participated in »68 to also participate in '28 or '38.".
In the meantime, «The mobilisation that exists is still a feverish flicker,» Pili admits realistically. However, he believes that under the same wind that turns hundreds of wind turbines on Sardinian land and sea, and the sun that powers thousands of photovoltaic plants, it could ignite «a popular, social fire of reaction.».
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PHOTO CREDITS: © Giulia Venturini/Lorenzo Timilli
