Montalto di Castro, the town where Italy’s last nuclear plant was built before a two-decade ban, is fighting against a return to atomic power and staking its future on solar energy by hosting Europe’s largest photovoltaic park.
“We’ve come up with a better idea,” Mayor Salvatore Carai said in an interview in his Town Hall office, which has views of the old reactor between the sea and acres of farmland. “The solar panels keep us self-sufficient. We haven’t used a single kilowatt of ‘dirty energy’ since December 2009.”
Italy, the only Group of Eight nation without nuclear plants, passed legislation in 2008 to return to generation and the country planned to build its first new reactors by 2020. That was before the accident at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant prompted the government to set a one-year moratorium.
As Italy debates whether to return to nuclear generation, Montalto’s mayor is organizing protests and supporting a national referendum to stop the construction of new plants, saying they would hurt agriculture and tourism.
“There’s concern people will abandon the land for fear of leaks,” Carai said. “No compensation they can offer could make up for that.”
The Montalto reactor, which never went into service, was dismantled after Italians voted in a 1987 referendum to end nuclear generation in the wake of the Chernobyl accident. The empty shell of the facility now sits next to a thermoelectric plant run by Enel SpA (ENEL), Italy’s biggest electricity producer.
Residents of Montalto are concerned that their town is a prime candidate to host new generators once the moratorium ends.
‘Top of List’
“We’re at the top of the list,” said Stefano Sebastiani, a spokesman for Montalto’s anti-nuclear committee. The Japanese accident has raised awareness on safety issues and made residents nervous about the prospect of new plants, he said. “Nuclear is like a pressure cooker and sooner or later the steam comes out and people pay the price.”
Experts agree that if plant construction goes ahead, the town of 9,000 between the sea and the hills of the central region of Lazio would offer an ideal location.
“Montalto is one of the places where it makes sense to restart nuclear,” said Giovanbattista Zorzoli, a nuclear engineer and professor at Milan’s polytechnic university. “It has the right conditions and a network already set up for distribution of the energy.” There’s also a canal connecting the area to the sea to allow for cooling, he said.
Montalto has already moved on, said Raffaello Giacchetti, regional manager for SunRay Renewable Energy, a European solar power-plant developer and operator of the town’s main 45 megawatt photovoltaic field. Producing enough electricity to power 15,000 homes, it’s the largest field in Europe.
Economic Advantages
“Montalto and other towns in the area have understood that they’re not just getting economic advantages from the fields,” Giacchetti said. “They’re are also creating an alternative to nuclear power.” The town’s solar fields combine to provide 85 MW of power, which should rise to 120 MW by the end of this year, according to Mayor Carai.
Solar panel prices will likely fall to $1.50 per watt in the second half of 2011 compared with around $1.80 in 2010, Jenny Chase, a solar analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said March 29.
Demand for solar may be supported by a backlash against atomic generators after the Fukushima accident. The WilderHill New Energy Index has gained about 8 percent since the March 11 accident as governments around the world review their nuclear plans.
Electricity Prices
Some Montalto residents remain skeptical about whether solar power can have enough of an impact. “We pay too much for electricity,” said Quinto Del Papa, a retired farmer who supports nuclear power. “I think nuclear would help.”
Italian households pay 21 euro cents per kilowatt hour of electricity compared with 13 cents in France and 14 cents in the U.K., while Italian businesses pay 13 cents, compared with 7 cents in France and 11 cents in the U.K., according to Brussels- based research firm Europe’s Energy Portal.
Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo said last year that nuclear power will help balance Italy’s energy mix, reduce electricity prices and cut dependence on imported energy.
Del Papa, who remembers Montalto as a boomtown that nearly doubled in population as the old plant was built, said new reactors “would also give us jobs.” As for the dangers of having a reactor in the neighborhood, he shrugged. “I’d live near it,” he said. “Those accidents are rare.”
Zorzoli, the Milan-based nuclear engineer, said he’s more skeptical about atomic energy since the Fukushima accident. “One should not be alarmist” about the country’s power requirements, he said. “Italy’s existing capacity and renewable development will allow us to face our needs.”
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