Diesel-powered islands and mountains
Islands, atolls, mountain resorts: they are among the most fascinating places in the world and a destination for millions of tourists every year. Italy, with its great geomorphological diversity, has several.
However, these corners of paradise are still largely powered by polluting, noisy and expensive diesel generators. Over 20 million people, of which around 1 million in Europe, find themselves in this situation, with an average generation cost exceeding €300/MWh.
In Italy, given the high solar radiation and windiness, these locations should be the ideal laboratory for the development of renewables, energy efficiency and storage systems. Yet this is not the case or at least not enough. Committees and organizations of various types have always opposed the development of renewables as they are considered sources that disfigure the landscape and "make tourists flee".
Renewables and tourism: finally cases of virtuous cooperation
The paradox that renewables damage tourism is finally being slowly dismantled by successful international experiences and by some "brave" Italians.
In the mountain resorts, the experience of Primiero – Trentino – is worth mentioning, which has made production from renewables and creating a system between energy and tourist structures an element of promotion of the territory. Alongside the experience of Primiero there are even more "extreme" international experiences: in Zermatt entry by car is forbidden and you can only move around using local electric vehicles (or horses).
Moving from the mountains to the islands, numerous international experiences, often implemented by Italian companies, have shown that renewables and tourism are not in conflict. Think of the Maldives and its eco-sustainable resorts with photovoltaic systems coupled with batteries. Moving on to less "exotic" places, we can cite the case of El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, which has become 100% renewable despite the stringent constraints deriving from its status as a UNESCO "Biosphere Reserve".
The growing awareness of tourists on the subject of environmental sustainability, combined with the increasingly competitive cost of renewables and storage, is also pushing Italy towards a clean energy transition of tourist sites. Consider, for example, the Smart Giglio project.
Renewables and tourism: an opportunity also for Italian industry
A note on business opportunities. The OIR Observatory has calculated that the investments needed to decarbonise isolated tourist sites exceed €50 billion globally. The potential for renewables is equal to over 20 GW (2 GW in Europe), that for energy storage amounts to around 5 GWh.
Given the great experience of Italian companies in renewables and storage, our industrial system could play an important role. Both in our home and in the world.
Conclusions. A national plan for renewables and tourism?
We conclude with a proposal for the Government. As known, the decree on the smaller islands is about to arrive. This is positive news. At this point, however, why not go further? And think about a national plan for tourism that dictates the lines of integrated development of renewables, energy efficiency, electric mobility and resilience of mountain resorts at hydrogeological risk? In our opinion it would be a useful tool for the growth of the country.
