New nuclear power plants across the Adriatic Sea could be available to supply energy-hungry Italy, according to politician Giulio Tremonti, quoted in daily Il Sole-24 Tuesday.
Tremonti is likely to become economy minister if Silvio Berlusconi wins the April 13-14 parliamentary elections. A senior official in Berlusconi's Freedom People's Party, he was economy minister in a previous Berlusconi government after 2000.
There appears to be "availability on the other side of the Adriatic for nuclear (power) joint ventures with Italy," Tremonti told the newspaper. He said the countries could be Albania and Montenegro, but declined to give a full list.
Italy would provide the technology and know-how for the ventures, and the costs of the projects would be "sustainable," he added.
Tremonti said nuclear power is essential in the medium term to satisfy the energy needs of industry, hit by high electricity costs. He added that in the long term renewable energy, generated from solar as well as hydrogen, could also play a role.