The issue of energy independence of the islands involves different technologies emerging in the recent years. But besides the integration among the networks of renewable electricity generation, storage and smart energy management, there is another resource that should be present: the water.
We have a look with Giuseppe Taverna, Director for Desalination in the Region of Sicily, at how this Italian island is dealing with this matter.
In your opinion, is the water supply independence the necessity that Sicily is dealing with? What is your proposal in this respect and what are you doing to optimize the expenditure?
I could say that despite Italy was a European leader in this aspect precisely due to the needs of its islands, then it slowed down, as it was blocked by the law of the 1950 which preferred to allocate significant economic resources for water supplies by means of ships. It actually stopped resolutely investing in desalination technologies. Having said that, currently, we have proposed transferring part of these resources for desalination technologies. To be more precise, in the case of the Region of Sicily it is €30-35 M a year and other €15 M allocated by the government of Italy and the Region of Sicily, respectively. We propose earmarking at least €15 M of the Region for implementation of desalination technologies with alternative energy sources or hybrid systems that would ensure independence of the smaller islands. We have estimated that such an undertaking will take around four years.
We believe that this will also entail the economies of scale which would allow reinvestment in the water cycle, and thus its treatment in order to ensure distribution and wastewater reclamation. For this reason we are considering also more innovative technological proposals and solutions.
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