ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the importance of wind energy in the development of Italian rural areas. The two main types of situation are therefore national or multinational companies able to install wind farms in rural areas purely for their own economic purpose and local actors able to install their own wind turbines for the purpose of local development. A territorial perspective has made it possible to show quite clearly that the financial and technical dimensions of wind energy have facilitated, at least in Italy, a colonisation of many rural areas. It arises at a time when local development policies have exhausted their main assets', such as inter-sector interventions and place identity promotion, and when political trends are moving towards the decentralisation and outsourcing of administrative functions. Thus, wind energy should be a new source of revenue for rural areas, and management of its development should be assigned to local authorities or to mixed agencies.
