There is a first fixed point in the tortuous process of awarding the contract for the refunctionalization of the only waste-to-energy plant in Calabria, located in Gioia Tauro. The Region’s Environment department has chosen that of the two contenders, the best offer for project financing is the one presented by the group led by the energy giant Iren Ambiente spa. An important provision which arrived at the end of 2025 and which can now allow us to overcome all the problems and delays also put in black and white by the regional section of the Court of Auditors last March.
A very difficult procedure, started in 2022 and which ended up in Court with appeals still pending also because the amount at stake is very high, being over 100 million euros.
A skein that has gradually become more complicated
In March 2022 the Region decided to unblock a situation that was already complex, because the waste-to-energy plant that came into operation at the beginning of the 2000s remained incomplete and the two lines that still operate have almost reached the end of their life. Thus began a large project finance operation with a mixed public-private intervention. However, problems arose immediately and a year passed without any news regarding the two offers received by the Region. The problem gradually became more complicated: the energy giants began to write warnings and notify appeals and the Region decided, in July 2024, to reopen the competitive debate with the request to adapt the proposals received both to the regulations of the “procurement decree” and to the recommendations of the panel of experts. The updated proposals following the provision to reopen the competition were subjected to evaluation by the panel of experts in order to identify the one most in line with the public interest. Evaluation arrived last September.
But the approval of the support group appointed by the Region was needed to definitively unblock everything.
However, once the choice has been made, the process has not been concluded: in addition to the technical time required for any appeals to expire, the procedure is not defined. In fact, the decree states that “it is necessary to start discussions in order to make the necessary adjustments to be able to declare the public interest of the proposed finance project, establishing that the declaration of public interest can only take place on condition that the economic operator implements what was found by the regional administration in the preliminary phase of evaluation and comparison of the proposals received”.
It will still take time, but at least the administrative part has been unblocked
It will therefore still take time to proceed with the work but at least the administrative part has been unblocked: the unknown remains of a regional system that is still fragile in terms of waste, with the Region still forced to resort to international waste disposal also due to the too low percentage of separate waste collection. We are still far behind other areas of Italy and only thanks to new plants will we be able to hope to become self-sufficient in the future.