by Elena Coatti
Lots of participation in the public presentation of the first Renewable Energy Community “Castello Green House” organized by Legacoop Estense and the Castello inhabitants’ cooperative. Because even if, as the regional councilor for economic development and green economy Vincenzo Colla stated during the meeting, “with the Cers you don’t become rich capitalists, they have a very strong cultural quality”.
The initiative was introduced by the president of Castello, Loredano Ferrari, who underlines the urgency of achieving the objectives of full sustainability of the energy system. “In many years of cooperation activities we have returned active citizenship to the territories that host us – he states -. Active citizens even in the face of unnatural and unsolicited decisions taken by our current administrators, fortunately outgoing, when it came to intervening on the definition of an agreement with the monopolist district heating manager of Ferrara. An agreement aimed at generating extra tariff revenue that we would never have expected, precisely at the worst moment when the price of gas was skyrocketing”.
As active citizens, therefore, they did not limit themselves to reporting but organized a strong civic network also made up of businesses, condominium administrators and trade associations. “We studied and studied the data in depth until we demonstrated the serious damage that careless administrators and inattentive municipal technicians were causing,” concludes Ferrari.
The future is therefore inevitably sustainable and, states Colla, “we will have more and more investments in self-production and local self-consumption, both for businesses and homes. The more we invest in energy autonomy – he continues – the more convenient it will be, in the future”. This true ‘culture of participation’ of the Cers is an opportunity for citizens, businesses, associations and third sector bodies to be protagonists of a cooperative project that will bring environmental, social and energy saving benefits. “A participation from below that returns to that idea of recognizing oneself in a collective dimension, in a country now dominated by selfishness and loneliness”, declares the councilor.
It also highlights the role of the Region in supporting these experiences by stating that they have already granted funding for the establishment of 124 Cers, involving almost 50 thousand people, and that they have recently approved the regional tender for the installation of energy production and storage plants. proximity energy, thus overcoming the system of large power plants. The newly elected president of Castello Green House, Massimo Buriani, recalls that this first large energy complex in Ferrara was established on 30 April with 42 signatory members, illustrating to those present all the technical aspects of energy production which would lead to “saving a bill per year, but above all to high environmental benefits”.
