Italy is rapidly becoming established as a key player in the European renewables industry after its new Conto Energie feed-in tariff scheme continues to promote investments in solar photovoltaic installations and wind power capacity rises at a rate of around 20% per annum, with a total installed capacity of nearly 5,000 MW across 294 farms as of the end of 2009, according to Gestore Servizi Energetici, a public company that manages incentive programmes for renewal energy.
While the Italian government will be pleased that the generous subsidies and feed-in tariffs it offers renewable energies are attracting investors, it may not be so enamoured with the idea that it has created a new market for the Mafia to exploit. Nevertheless, Minister of the Interior, Roberto Maroni, recently described last Tuesday’s seizure of solar and wind energy assets among others from Italian businessman, Vito Nicastri, as the "the biggest seizure of assets" on record.
Anti-mafia investigators in Rome said in a statement that the businessman is suspected of laundering money for the Sicilian Mafia. Investigators allege that the 54-year-old had close ties to Mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, and involved the Mafia in renewable energy.
Lord of Wind invests dirty money
Nicastri is known is well-known in the Italian wind power sector as "Lord of the Wind", and this huge seizure has put the spotlight on Mafia money-laundering through renewable energy ventures.
"The Mafia use clean energy to invest dirty money," Sicilian journalist, Lirio Abbate, told AFP after the Tuesday raid. The Interior Ministry reported that no fewer than 43 wind and solar energy companies were included in the haul.
The infiltration of organised crime into the renewable energy sector is "a combination that is only now coming to light", said Abbate, a specialist in Mafia affairs who is under police protection.
"The Cosa Nostra has managed to infiltrate the wind energy sector in the past few years by taking advantage of bad policies and bad bureaucracies," Opposition Senator, Giuseppe Lumia, told AFP.
Meanwhile, Beppe Ruggiero, an official with the anti-Mafia association Libera, emphasises that investments in renewable energies “should not be discouraged”, but warns that "it is very important for this sector to stay far from Mafia activities" if renewable energy is to contribute to development especially of Italy's poorer south.
Unfortunately, it looks like it is already too late, with the seizure of Nicastri's assets confirming the interest that organised crime has in renewable energy; an interest explained by the fact that it is a "new sector where there is more public money and less control", Ruggiero concluded.
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