Italy Investing in Wind Energy

Italy To Build 500 Wind Plants

(ANSA) - Milan, November 6, 2007 - Italy plans to build 500 more wind plants, according to the Monday economic supplement of Italy's daily Corriere della Sera. With the help of the 500 additional plants Italy plans to reach a 23 gigawatt energy production - ten times higher than what the country is currently producing. The new wind farms will make Italy the world's biggest producer of wind energy, leapfrogging Germany which is now producing 22.6 gigawatts.

In 2006 alone, 417 wind plants were built in Italy, situated mainly in the southern regions of Sicily, Puglia, Basilicata and Molise but also in the central region of Tuscany. Wind energy is the most lucrative type of green energy and is attracting Italian investors such as diversified holding companies Moratti and De Benedetti and big oil companies such as Garrone, according to Corriere della Sera. Italian energy group Enel SpA is also searching for sites with steady wind out of Italy, in Europe.

Meanwhile, Spain's Endesa and Iberdrola are also building plants in Basilicata and Calabria. The biggest investor in wind plants in Italy is the UK-based company International Power.

www.ansa.it

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Wind Energy Facts (from renewableenergyweek.com), with Blogiorno Editorial Notes:

* In 2006, the U.S.'s cumulative wind power capacity was 9,971 MW -- within close striking distance of the 10 gigawatt (10,000 MW) milestone.

[Note, this is capacity; it doesn't mean we actually, like, do it. Or even want to. Compare to Italy's planned capacity of 23 gigawatts, as cited in the story above.]

* 2,500 MW of capacity is enough to power more than 600,000 average American homes.

[For 5 minutes. At 2:00 a.m.]

* Texas edged ahead of California in Wind Energy capacity in 2006.

[They'll need all that power to keep the planned high-voltage electric fences along the border going. For its part, California will install Red Bull vending machines along the border. Requiring purchase of the high-energy Red Bull drinks, rather than freely distributing them, will deter illegals, California officials say.]

* California has led the nation in wind capacity for 25 years, and at one time was host to more than 80 percent of the wind capacity in the entire world. However, energy and electricity prices tanked during the global oil glut of the 1980s, putting California's wind power boom on hold.

[California has made up for this lapse by "proudly" leading the world in the export of attractive-but-talentless, surgically-enhanced, blonde Hollywood "starlets", and their non-famous look-a-like counterparts. Friends, Blogiorno opposes such exports and believes that we must investigate energy-efficient disposal methods for these undesirable, unnatural resources. Our future depends on it.]