Foreigners eye Italian wind power

ROME, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Italy's untapped potential to generate wind power is attracting the attention of foreign investors interested in economically viable forms of clean energy production, according to an Italian media report.

Last December, German insurance giant Allianz bought up a large wind farm at Francofonte in Sicily. Meanwhile, Spanish and Danish power companies are also looking to invest in new sites.

Italy currently produces only about 1,700 MW from wind power, which puts it in the seventh place in the global standings. Those standings are led by the Unied States, Germany and Spain.

But its capacity is growing fast. Last year, thanks to 26 new projects, it went up by 35 percent and in the first four months of 2006 total production was 62 percent higher than during the same period of 2005.

"If we carry on like this, the average annual increases could be as much as 700 MW," said Francesco Liuzzi, head of Vestas Italia, a major producer of wind turbines for power stations.

"The Spaniards and the Danes haven't installed plants here yet but they're already moving" in that direction, he added, referring to Spanish energy groups CesaEolica and Iberdrola and the Danish Greentech.

Most of Italy's existing wind farms are concentrated in southern regions and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Between them they produce an annual revenue of some 450 million euros and employ 3,500 people.

The economic advantages of wind power, as opposed to other less developed forms of renewable energy, mean that many international groups are looking for opportunities to expand the industry.

The European Union, meanwhile, has set an objective of obtaining 12 percent of its total energy requirements, and 21 percent of its electrical energy requirement, from renewable sources by 2010.

Wind power has proved to be one of the renewable energy sources with the most potential," Liuzzi said, adding that the technology of wind power was now "mature", compared to other clean energy sources such as solar power.

Italy's own energy companies are also seeing the potential. Petrol group Garrone recently made a 300-million euro offer for Enertad, the country's fifth biggest producer of wind power.