27 Italian municipalities are l00% green, Legambiente says
Prato allo Stelvio 'cleanest' town
26 March, 17:42
(ANSA) - Rome, March 26 - Twenty-seven municipalities in
Italy source all the power needed to meet their residential
electricity and heating needs from renewable sources,
Legambiente said on Tuesday.First among equals is Prato allo Stelvio in the northern autonomous province of Bolzano, according to the environmental watchdog's 2013 Renewable Municipalities report. Here ''the management of networks and power plants ensures that members of the cooperative pay 27% less for electricity and 62% less for heating than the Italian average'', Legambiente said. In total 2,400 municipalities source all their electricity from renewable sources.
Further 7,937 - 97% of the total - make some use of solar power. Casaletto di Sopra in the province of Cremona (Lombardy) and Don in the province of Trento (Trentino-Alto Adige) have the highest number of plants per inhabitant respectively for photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. Wind power is used in 571 municipalities, with a combined installed capacity of 8,703 MW and a combined production in 2012 of 3,1 Twh, enough to meet the energy needs of over 5.2 million families. Instead 1,053 municipalities use small-scale hydroelectric power generation to produce electricity and 369 use geothermics for power and heating supplies. Last but not least 1,494 municipalities use biomass energy to meet their energy needs, the report said.
