The European Commission has selected 26 islands that will focus on renewable energy sources over the coming years, among them three Italian islands.
Salina, Favignana and Pantelleria are ready to abandon fossil fuels and focus on renewables to meet their energy demand. The three Sicilian islands have been selected, along with 23 others, by the Clean Energy for EU Islands Secretariat of the European Commission to be supported by Brussels in the energy transition.
A first package of six islands – Aran Islands (Ireland), Cres-Lošinj archipelago (Croatia), Sifnos (Greece), Culatra (Portugal), Salina (Italy) and La Palma (Spain) – will begin planning their energy transition process immediately, while the other 20 will do so from summer 2020.
There are more than 2,200 inhabited islands in the EU. Despite the abundance of renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and wave energy, many of these currently depend on costly fossil fuel imports for their energy supply. The clean energy transition can help islands not only to become more self-sufficient and prosperous, but also to unlock new job opportunities within their communities.
The objective of the Clean energy for EU islands secretariat is to help as many European islands as possible to embark on and advance the transition to clean energy. The 26 islands were selected on the basis of their potential to establish a high-quality transition process with the support of the secretariat, but also to become inspiring examples for as many European islands as possible in the coming years. In choosing the islands, Brussels sought to represent a wide variety of geographical and contextual conditions.
"The 26 selected islands show remarkable potential and enthusiasm for developing strong and lasting multi-stakeholder collaborations around the energy transition. In this way, they will not only become self-sufficient and prosperous, but will also provide stimulating examples for other islands and Europe as a whole," commented Dominique Ristori, Director General of the EU Commission for Energy.
The Municipality of Favignana, which encompasses the entire Egadi archipelago and was chosen by Brussels among the 26 islands, has in fact already launched a study into the process of abandoning fossil fuels. In 2017, the mayor of the archipelago, Giuseppe Pagoto, had put the Egadi Islands forward as model islands for the energy transition: "The Egadi Islands are putting themselves forward to become lighthouse islands of the European Commission and thus transform into a laboratory and a venue for projects on environmental sustainability." Today the Municipality of Favignana is a member of the Greening the Islands international observatory, which supports islands in becoming sustainable, not only in terms of energy, but also in the water, mobility, waste and tourism sectors.
