The large cranes have been on site for a few days. Traffic is still rare, waiting for the sunny season now upon us. The proscenium is that of Monte Nieddu, a link between the hinterland and the Capitana inlet, in the large Gulf of Angels. The countryside is that of Separassiu, in the Quartucciu countryside, in the metropolitan area of Cagliari. To reach those bulldozers that level without respite close to the new state road 554, the one that connects the Cagliari area with Villasimius, you have to risk a journey without tom-toms. The roads are there, white and ruinous, but they can’t be seen on the maps. They also built the flyover to connect the two agricultural banks separated by the highway. As time passed, however, they must have forgotten to test it: it has always been closed.
Electrochemical expanse
On this road front, among the ruins of abandoned agro-pastoral companies and villas between the sea and the mountains, it is impossible not to notice what has been happening for days in total silence. A coming and going of heavy vehicles, escorted and unescorted trucks, with flying mechanical arms that transfer green containers suspended in the air and then placed in that “electrochemical” expanse that unknown gentlemen from far away have decided to place close to Sant’Isidoro and Niu Crobu. Where once upon a time there were vineyards and pastures, now it is the time of the Chinese invasion on Sardinian land. Despite all the contrary opinions, the fiery municipal councils, the protests expressed loudly, the construction of the largest electrochemical battery in Sardinia, probably one of the largest in Europe, has begun in that area. They don’t care in the Palaces of Rome. With a “military” decree they ruled: occupy that area and build a 180 megawatt storage battery, the most impressive concentration of lithium ever allowed by the former Ministry of the Environment, now committed to violating it by virtue of the elusive ” Energy Security”.
Colonial coup
The decree of the Director General of that Dicastery of Rome which authorizes this strategic and environmental massacre was also published in the Official Journal, but no one has ever challenged it. Now, the work start sign, hidden by the only olive tree saved from the progress of the bulldozers, communicates the crime: construction of a Bess plant (Battery Energy Storage System) of nominal power of 180 megawatts. End of work April 2025, complete with companies coming from far away, except for a minute citation for yet another humiliating sub-contract “reserved” for a Sardinian company. No Environmental Impact Assessment, as befits a colonial “coup” in Sardinia. Draghi & company had also foreseen in the famous decrees of “militarization” of energy speculation in Sardinia to give the green light to this “insular” drop of batteries without any environmental procedure. After all, what did he care if, close to hundreds of homes, in a notoriously agricultural area, an infinite expanse of lithium had been created, planned by a cheap company? Nothing, exactly.
Like a kiosk
They authorized it as if it were a kiosk, with the difference that inside those two hundred containers positioned in single file there is a mountain of lithium, the most flammable and dangerous. All concentrated close to a road artery of primary importance and above all at the gates of the metropolitan area of Cagliari. In this grand-style assault, however, there are too many “black holes” and many unknowns: from the company that presented the projects, to the relationships between the top management of Enel and the “lucky” srl, the identification of those lands despite the urban planning bans, the choice of Chinese batteries to create this mega lithium battery. The questions are difficult, starting from the company that obtained ministerial authorizations and entered as if by magic into the “divine” graces of Enel and its officials.
Corporate entanglement
It is a chapter, that of the corporate intertwining, which opens up unexplored scenarios, with one question above all: why the very powerful Enel is “forced” to acquire an anonymous ten thousand euro company, “EnergyQ1bess srl”, to create the largest “electrochemical” battery in Italy, one of the largest in the world? For what reason does the Ministry authorize a “srl” and then it, immediately afterwards, hands over bag and baggage to the state multinational? Moreover, the “unknown” company does not have a history to include among the CV references: established only on September 20th 2021, a few days before presenting Quartucciu’s project, with a tax headquarters in a sort of garage on the outskirts of Olbia, in a dead-end street named after Simplicio Spano.
Good Roman offices
Yet, the administrator of that team, the engineer Stefano Floris, seems to enjoy good offices within the former state body given that he managed, without firing a shot, to place that project in the blink of an eye, so which today is among the “fortunes” of a newly formed group of the energy giant: “Enel Libra Flexsys srl”. The amounts paid for the corporate transfer and the “authorization” services rendered to the multinational remain a mystery.
Agricultural land
A separate chapter is the choice of land: strangely the eyes of “EnergyQ1bess” have focused on agricultural land, urbanistically “zone E”, prohibited for any different use. Rejection without appeal by the Municipality of Quartucciu: «Incompatible with our territory». The Region itself had put down the contrary opinion in black and white: «It does not comply with the current urban plan» and «it is in conflict both in terms of less consumption of the territory and of conservation of land with agricultural potential, such as the one on which the intervention falls.” It’s a shame that with deadly timing the Government, the Meloni one, has introduced surgical changes to the reference standard: the authorization does not provide for the acquisition of the Regional Agreement. In short, the State allows the “nobody” on duty to “deface” what he wants, without even the slightest “Agreement” with the Region. It’s a shame that the regional council, a year ago, forgot to challenge that law and block that project as would have been necessary to avoid dangerous precedents. Many silences and many complicities, even to the detriment of unprotected “autonomous” powers and as in this case “sold off” to allow “electrochemical” business in Sardinia.
Chinese chapter
Finally, the Chinese chapter, the most disturbing on a strategic level: with this umpteenth operation, this time close to Cagliari, Enel is positioning in Sardinia an impressive quantity of batteries from the most powerful Chinese factory, the Catl. Containers full of lithium that are literally invading the island, with massive problems linked not only to security, but also to the total energy “dependence” on the People’s Republic of China. In practice, with the sole aim of “closing” the Sulcis power plant, Enel is effectively handing over to the dominion of the “Dragon” the entire “nefarious” energy storage system planned for Sardinia with the unrealistic objective of “storing” the energy produced by the “forests” of wind turbines and endless expanses of photovoltaic panels. In reality, they always and only think about money: they buy liberally and at low cost from China, which is in the throes of an overproduction of batteries, and at the same time they collect from the State a “valorisation” premium of 51,012 euros per megawatt, to be multiplied by 180 and for 20 years. At the end of the day, with this Quartucciu operation, Enel will put in its pocket, just from incentives for valorisation, a good 183 million euros in twenty years.
Boxes & alchemy
Last note: behind this project there is a system of “Chinese boxes”, unknown and anonymous companies, all attributable to “Alchemist srl”, yet another ten thousand euro company. As if it were a coincidence, the headquarters are always in the garage, the one in the dead end on the outskirts of Olbia. The shareholders, needless to say, are the same as “EnergyQ1Bess”, they plan, get the projects authorized and then sell everything to the state giant. An unexplored chapter with many names, intersections, consultancies and a lot of money.
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