Wind farms in Italy threaten to wipe out the Golden Eagle, farmers` organisation Coldiretti and national environmental organisations declared recently. As concern about climate change and sustainable, eco-friendly alternative energy grows, it‘s surprising that an industry with so much potential – the wind industry – is under fire from environmental groups.

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An Italian research team has developed a technique that could be used to make clean fuel from water. The method discovered by researcher Roberto Bini and his team from the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy - University of Florence, uses lasers to produce hydrogen from water under high pressure.

”There is no other chemical agent involved in the process - not solvents, catalysts or radial initiators,” said Roberto Bini. “This is extremely important because it means that at the end of the process there are no substances left to separate, treat or dispose of. In effect, the costs are reduced and there is zero-impact on the environment”.

The starting point for the technique is irradiating the water with a laser: ”The light excites the water molecules, which produce hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen atoms,” Roberto Bini explained. This separation usually lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second before the parts recombine but the Florence team found a way around this problem. They realized that by applying the laser in high-pressure conditions - around 1,000 atmospheres - the separation lasts far longer. This means that large-volume pressurized irradiation reactors could be used for a number of chemical processes, including the generation of hydrogen for use as fuel.

According to Bini, because the laser uses near-ultraviolet radiation, sunlight could in theory eventually be used to obtain the same result. ”Currently, about 96% of hydrogen comes from non-renewable sources, such as carbon and hydrocarbon, and just 4% from water,” said Bini. He admitted the process still needed work but said he was optimistic about future developments.

”A great many more studies will be needed to verify the system but there is the real prospect that one day we will be able to produce clean fuel, hydrogen, using nothing more than sunlight and damp air as raw materials,” he said.

Image courtesy of Elijah85’s photostream on Flickr under Creative Commons

Italy definitively approved the return of nuclear energy after 22 years as part of a new development strategy. Italy abandoned nuclear energy after a 1987 referendum, whose result was strongly influenced by the Chernobyl disaster in Russia the previous year.

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Last Monday, 29th of June, in Viareggio: Axle failure on a wagon carrying liquid gas caused a rail disaster in central Italy.

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Italian Bank UniCredit signed a deal with conservation group WWF in order to set the goal to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% by 2020, supporting the EU energy goal – also known as ’20-20-20’ – defined in the “Climate & Energy Package”.

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Siemens Energy, a subsidiary of global engineering company Siemens AG, is going to acquire a 28% stake in the Italian solar company Archimede Solar Energy SpA. Archimede is currently the only manufacturer of solar receiver tubes that use, under license from ENEA, molten salt as the heat-transfer fluid for application in parabolic-trough power plants.

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In the heart of Tuscany the city of Grosseto has recently presented an important eco-building project, the first in Italy that will allow residents to forget completely house bills.

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It’s plentiful, it’s homegrown, and it could help clean up the environment while powering our cities. The idea of transforming algae into a fuel is a reality. Nowadays there are numerous implementations of algae into the renewable energy market.

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What a shame!

To overcome the current economic and financial crisis Italy plays the card of improvisation without considering the consequences. But what can get worse an unpopular decision? The answer seems to be: the mental instability of the decision maker.

I’m going to explain better what happened..

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Albania Aims to Build the Largest Wind Farm in Europe

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is visiting today Albania to sign energy deals worth more than euro 2 billion for the construction of an undersea gas pipeline linking the two countries, a regasification plant and a large wind farm. Italy’s energy deficit and internal problems in building new infrastructure make Albania an attractive option for sourcing electricity.

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Last week Europe and Africa met in Florence for the “Interdependence Days“, an event promoted by a bunch of associations (among the others Legambiente) and supported by Regione Toscana.

A two-days workshop about poverty, media, environment and cooperation with the African states. An opportunity to dig into the political, economical and social reality of Africa so unknown and misunderstanded by the old country.

Italian and African speakers have focused on the necessity to establish a new way to read the relationship between the two continents in order to fight poverty and set the basis for development. The world of information turned out to be the first responsible in this process. Too often European media present Africa only as the land of civil wars and poor-feeding, the heart of tragedies and natural disasters.

Where is the other face of Africa?

European citizens, Italians in particular, have a very poor knowledge about what Africa represents in term of human relations and ancient traditions: a crossroads of populations, cultures and dialects that enriches the heritage of the world giving us the opportunity to look at the future. Some African journalists, present at the event, tried to underline the importance of new international policies in Africa in order to protect its environment, so rich in natural resources, and restore a society exhausted by corruption and civil struggles.The Italian President of FNSI (National Federation of Journalists) attended the meeting to request more professionalism in our journalism.

All the representatives have agreed that only an Afro-European sinergy for a global governance could face the challenges of the future acting for equality and cooperation. Starting with a correct information of the African issues into the European media.

Image credit: by Jaci Barkopec in Flickr under Creative Commons

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Wandering the streets of central Rome and taking in the breathtaking ruins and archaeological history can be somewhat of a challenge when trying to keep cool in 30+ degree heat. In summer time tourists love to discover the city centre walking or looking up to the Colosseum from the back of a horse carriage.

Now animal rights activists are trying to ban this practice. The group, Ente Nazionale Protezione Animali (ENPA) says that traffic, pollution, heat and heavy carriages expose the horses to health risks, especially during this hot season. According to the association, about 90 horses carry tourists to see the city’s landmarks on busy streets full of speeding cars and motorbikes.

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A new experiment comes from Michele Grassi, researcher at the department of math at the University of Pisa, in the centre of Italy, who built a prototype of a wave-trapping machine.

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Look for your swimsuit!

Sunday 6th of July Italy will participate for the third time to the “Big Jump“, a campaign by European Rivers Network (ERN) to inspire a reconciliation of people with their rivers.

The Italian NGO “Legambiente” has organized many events to celebrate this national meeting on the Po River, the country’s longest river (405 miles long). The Po’s waters flow through the Val Padana, the plain that stretches across northern Italy from the French border on the west to the Adriatic Sea on the east. Many Italians live in this fertile expanse, some of the most heavily cultivated land in Europe: here is located the city of Turin, headquarters of Fiat, the automotive conglomerate, and some of the country’s most beautiful and historic towns.

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I know, in order to improve the quality of our lives the first step to do is to respect our cities, our neighbourhood and people around us. While we run up and down to full every empty space of our days, the Italian cultural heritage takes a rest to tell us about ancient families and artists, old palaces and frescos. Rome, Florence, Venice and other historical cities that today have to face many social challenges: urban blight, social degradation and abandoning of public spaces. Italy spends hundreds of thousands of Euros every year cleaning up historical monuments that have been defaced by writing or graffiti art.

To face urban blight and raise a common sense of respect Florence launches today a new idea: ten black angels passing through the city centre in order to guarantee decorum and educate people. Starting tomorrow, the group will go around the city talking with citizens and tourists, seeing that they respect the cultural heritage and don’t leave their garbage everywhere. The ten angels are citizens from Senegal living in Florence for a long time; they have been chosen and trained for this project by the consulate of Senegal and the council administration of Florence.

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A worrying alarm arrives now from the Italian Farmers Association (CIA): mass amounts of food is sitting and rotting in their fields because sale prices don’t cover all of the costs of production. The result is a 1.5 million of tons wasted every year and 4 billion of Euro frittered away. All this with rising costs for Italian consumers and farmers.

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With escalating oil and gas costs and growing French electricity imports, Italy is changing is stance on nuclear power. The re-elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised on his campaign to recommit the country to nuclear power and an heated debate is now popping up from north to south.

The general impression is there is still strong local opposition for three main reasons: high construction costs, projected build times of one to two decades and no identifiable Italian community willing to see a nuclear reactor built in their neighborhood. Italy has also failed to resolve the issue of what to do with nuclear waste. A proposed dump in Basilicata region was shelved in 2003 after thousands of demonstrators staged road blocks, marches and hunger strikes.

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Tourism has been part of the life of Venice for centuries; however, in the last years, the city has faced grave problems due to the tremendous volume of tourists each year. Residents say that whereas the centre of Venice was once full of shops selling ‘real things’ but now most shops sell souvenirs such as Merano glass and carnival masks.

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