In Sicily, the energy community between farms
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Sunny valleys that run up to the southern coast of Sicily, between the former petrochemical plant that has now become green in Gela and the Montalbano television beach. They are those of Acate, a town in the Ragusa area with just over 10 thousand inhabitants on the border with the provinces of Catania and Caltanissetta. There these days three lights up almost simultaneously energy communitiesthe first in Italy to involve farms. A choice made by companies a year ago, when Covid was still scary, while there was no trace of the energy crisis triggered by the conflict in Ukraine.
Two solid partners like Enel X and the Popular Agricultural Bank of Ragusa, a slalom between the obstacles of the bureaucracy and the first hints of higher prices of materials but now the three communities are about to light up to allow farms to share the energy produced by the sun. The consortium company is the leader of two communities The Mediterraneana colossus in the cultivation and export of chrysanthemums, the third originates from the winery Valle dell’Acate, which exports its Cerasuolo throughout Europe and the United States. In all three photovoltaic systems each with a power of 200kW which will currently allow a dozen small and medium-sized enterprises to share their energy consumption, cut their bills more and more until they start earning by obtaining twenty-year state incentives that will be redistributed to members and reducing CO emissions2.
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Behind this pioneering initiative that exploits for the first time in agriculture the regulations launched in 2019 by a Milleproroghe decree of the Italian government, there are stories of companies that have been handed down for generations, but where the latest descendants have also inherited from their fathers the drive to innovate. As in the case of Paola and Francesco Gurrieri at the head of the consortium company La Mediterranea. Four companies for a total of over 100 hectares of land where they cultivate chrysanthemums in a continuous cycle which they export throughout Italy and abroad, including Holland who certainly has nothing to learn about flowers. And it is precisely with the Dutch breeding companies that the Sicilian company has a partnership to create new selected species. Thus La Mediterranea covers 8% of the European chrysanthemum market. “It was dad, who was a teacher but very attached to the land, who gave birth to the company – says Paola Gurrieri – from the very beginning linked to innovation and ethics in production and work”.
The company is the first and so far the only one in Italy to adopt the soil sterilization with water steama technique that made it possible to ban chemical fertilizers and to realize the separate waste collection in five categories. But it is also a community for its workers: “We have about 180 employees – explains the administrator – including 50 foreigners who we host in 18 apartments built by us that we give on loan for free use. father who allows workers to reunite with their families. Among them there are Pakistanis, Tunisians, Romanians and now also some Ukrainians. Providing them with housing is a way to give them dignity and credibility, promote their integration and this also converges in their This is a delicate activity, we can say ethics, it is about “taking care.” Even the choice of energy community for us it has a ethical meaning but now it also becomes a strategic investment against expensive energy “.
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It all stems from the agricultural bank’s proposal to support a investment of 252 thousand euros: “We started with the first community – reveals Paola Gurrieri – and then we decided to double with the other one called Kamarina. We used both the workshop and warehouse roofs and the ground to install the shelters. It was also a long struggle with the bureaucracy, with delays in the delivery of materials in these difficult months but in the end the first community will light up in these days and the other in a few weeks. And we don’t stop, my brother has started the process for an agrivoltaic plant “.
There is also a woman behind the third energy community with three wineries headed by Valle dell’Acate, a company that arrived with Gaetana Iacono in the sixth generation. “In the nineteenth century – says the entrepreneur – our barrels of frappato left by ship from Scoglitti for France. I started thirty years ago alongside my father who had already traced the path towards organic farming and the protection of biodiversity. only organic, Frappato, Cerasuolo di Vittoria and Grillo.For us the energy community, called “Houses of Biddini” like our district, it was the normal step towards greater sustainability. But now I thank my father for the teachings, with the bills increased by five times the photovoltaic systems we are lighting are our salvation “.
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But there are still problems to be solved: “We want to involve other companies – explains Iacono – but we need public investments in the distribution network and in the speed of connection of companies. The State must facilitate the effort that we private individuals are making, only in this way will other companies follow. our example “.
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Satisfied the director of the Agricultural Bank, Saverio Continella: “Sicily can make a decisive contribution to the ecological transition, as demonstrated by these agricultural realities with which we have collaborated. We want to be the operational arm that allows businesses, families and even public administrations to adopt green and innovative models”.
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