Conditional green light for Sardinian wind farm
Judges unblock regional denials after change in environmental policies
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Key points
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The Sardinian regional government must allow the start of the construction of a large wind farm in the north of the island, despite the change of approach on the issue as a result of last year's elections.
The Council of State - Section Four, Order 6402/2025 - has entered by force of arms into the dispute over the "Alas" plant - 66 MW planned in the municipalities of Ittiri and Villanova Monteleone, in the Sassarese area - reforming the decision of the local Regional Administrative Tribunal and ordering the island's administration to allow Rwe Renewables Italia to start preparing the area so as not to prejudice the financing of the work.
A corollary of the decision, which in fact freezes the political skirmishes following the change of administration in the regional palace, is that, should the more 'landscape' orientation prevail and thus the abandonment of the project, the company will restore the disputed sites.
The affair
.The 'Alas' plant for the production of electrical energy from renewable sources had obtained the single regional authorisation on 22 January 2024, after which the company had applied to start work on the site, but in October of that year, the Regional Council had communicated its refusal, also on the basis of the regional decree that, in July, had suspended all projects for 18 months. In the meantime, Rwe Renewables had challenged these administrative acts, losing the case, but last December's new regional law, which was definitively restrictive in terms of landscape protection, further complicated the situation.
New law, new appeals with additional grounds and, at the same time, a new precautionary petition motivated as to the periculum in mora by the need not to lose the public funding granted to build the plant.
