The 2026 Winter Olympics — with nearly 3,000 athletes competing in 16 different sports across 116 medal events — will be ‘the most extensive ever, spread over an area of more than 22,000 square kilometers,’ according to the organizers themselves. They are called the Milan–Cortina Olympics because these two cities will be the most representative locations of the event, but many more venues will be involved. Overall, competitions will take place across eight different sites: Milan (including the municipalities of Rho and Assago), Cortina d’Ampezzo, Bormio, Livigno, Tesero, Predazzo, Anterselva, and Verona.

Organizing such a geographically spread-out Olympics offers several advantages. First of all, it allows different territories and locations to be showcased — in this case, from the Verona Arena to some of the most renowned and popular Alpine ski slopes — highlighting the excellence of the entire Alpine arc rather than adapting to the nearest facilities. This approach also helps reduce environmental impact by limiting the construction of new infrastructure and enabling multiple locations to present themselves, each for their own strengths. Finally, it gives relatively small centers — such as Livigno, for example — the opportunity to host a significant number of Olympic competitions.

Recently, the International Olympic Committee published a study on the fate of all the venues used in the modern Olympic Games — nearly a thousand in total. The report examines the 53 editions of the Summer and Winter Games held between 1896 and 2022, showing that most facilities continued to be used even after the events concluded. Of the 982 venues considered, 115 were temporary and 867 were permanent — that is, either pre-existing or built with the aim of remaining in use after the Olympics. Among these 867 permanent venues, 124 are now unused: most of them (94) because they no longer exist (having been demolished or replaced by more modern facilities) and 30 because they were abandoned.

Terna’s commitment to ensuring a safe, reliable, and sustainable power system for Milan–Cortina 2026 consists of a set of infrastructure projects with low landscape impact, designed to support the sporting event. This includes 130 km of completely ‘invisible’ power lines, as they are underground, and next-generation electrical substations.
These interventions will help strengthen the high-voltage grid across a large portion of Northern Italy and increase the resilience of infrastructure in areas that in recent years have been heavily affected by extreme weather events. These are therefore complex projects, technologically advanced from both an engineering and environmental perspective, leaving a lasting legacy for citizens, businesses, territories, local communities, and the entire country.

Terna’s planned interventions, in addition to supporting the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, have the added advantage of going beyond the event itself, providing Italy with more modern and resilient infrastructure — meaning citizens and businesses will continue to benefit from a higher-quality power system for years to come.

Another distinctive aspect of Terna’s infrastructure plan for the 2026 Winter Games is its focus on sustainability. For example, the choice to build underground power lines reduces landscape impact and preserves the integrity of the Alpine territories — areas of high natural and touristic value. In addition, the construction of new electrical substations has been guided by principles of harmonious integration into the landscape, with compact architectural solutions and low land consumption. Among the solutions developed by Terna, particular attention should be given to those aimed at minimizing the visual impact of the Premadio substation, where partial burial of the buildings was chosen, along with the construction of a substantial retaining wall to allow excavation of the entire area.

Moreover, the construction sites were organized in coordination with municipalities and local authorities, scheduling pauses during peak tourist seasons or in the months with the most unfavorable weather, in order to minimize the impact on local communities. Terna led all phases of the project, working side by side with local authorities, national institutions, and territorial stakeholders, ensuring maximum transparency and constant dialogue to reconcile energy needs, environmental protection, and community development.