The source of renewable energy comes from nature and here the south (and Puglia) accounts for the lion’s share. Not only for the raw material (sun, wind), but also for the research and results achieved.
The appointment
The appointment in May 2025 at the Fiera del Levante with “Renewave” is proof of this: Puglia is the first region in Italy for RES (Renewable Energy Sources). And in recent years Poliba has been carrying out a series of very high level projects.
Photovoltaic cells
Giuseppe Bratta, regional president of the Apulian renewable energy and energy efficiency production district, for example, talks about the work done on organic photovoltaic cells: «They are more versatile than panels. Their composition is made of layers of organic material and conductors. – he says referring to photovoltaic cells – they are carbon-based and can be synthesized in the laboratory and recycled more easily, with an inevitable advantage for the environment, while the material underlying traditional panels is silicon which is not easy to find, and it is expensive to process and dispose of. Organic cells, on the other hand, are very flexible and light and can be installed anywhere and have lower production costs than traditional panels: to produce them you just need to print them and adapt them to the surface intended to host them”. Except that they are not very widespread: «They have a more limited energy efficiency, have a shorter life and degrade more easily, but they also have an objective potential. In fact, according to estimates, the value of the global organic photovoltaic cell market will grow by 13-20 percent in the next 7 years.”
The role of the South
To understand where research is going, to understand the importance of renewable energy, to take stock among scientists, the idea of Renewave was born. Puglia, rich in sun, wind and sea, first in Italy for the number of renewable energy plants, can be a leader in this fundamental change for the future of the planet, also thanks to the excitement of the ever-increasing number of companies operating there. The South can play a leading role considering the enormous tribute that the Pniec (National Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate) assigns to it to compete with the development of renewables towards the European and national objectives of reducing CO2 emissions and decarbonization of the economy. Therefore a renewables fair is the last link in an attractive strategy to present the most advanced technologies in the sector to businesses and citizens.
PoliBa and research
A fundamental role in this sense is played by the Polytechnic of Bari where the renewable energy district has had its home for almost ten years now, precisely because here research and development, also linked to synergies between public and private, find a precise convergence. In fact, many of the District’s objectives coincide with those of the Polytechnic, primarily the ability to create a system. Only it is important that all this also becomes everyone’s heritage, so that the awareness of the need to change the energy system is full awareness for citizens too.
