Italy is determined to wean itself off of its dependence on Russian gas by giving the green light to construct six more wind farms with a capacity of 418 megawatts.
According to a government statement, these new farms will be erected in the central and southern regions of Puglia, Basilica, and Sardinia, and will join the two wind farms (with a capacity of 65.5 megawatts) that the government had already cleared last month.
Italy’s plan is to end its reliance on Russian gas “within 30 months,” says the minister for the ecological transition. They strive to do this along with the rest of the EU, the UK, and the US.
Though it will be difficult for the country to stop depending on Russian gas, the climate change think tank ECCO believes it should be able to manage if they implement energy efficiency measures, rollout renewables quickly, and leverage existing gas infrastructure.
Currently, Italy is in third place in all of Europe for both renewable power consumption and electrical and thermal power production from renewable sources. It is also one of the 14 EU countries that were able to reach its 2020 target of renewables as a percentage of total energy consumption. In fact, they surpassed the target of 17 percent, coming in at 18.2 percent.
