I thank the President of Aper for his comments which, in agreement with the Director, were gladly made published on Firstonline. The hope is that the debate will develop in the interests of the country.
Moreover, King Rebaudengo is not wrong when he says that our Observatory OIR (International Observatory on the Industry and Finance of Renewables - www.agici.it) has an "articulated" vision. We try (perhaps unsuccessfully) to think of what would seem preferable for the country. We have criticized the position of Passera and, personally, also that of Claudio de Vincenti when they made terrorist statements against renewables. But at the same time we cannot forget the other contextual situations: overabundant production capacity (120.000 MW against a peak demand of 54.000 MW), declining or almost collapsing demand (hopefully not structural even if the hypothesis is anything but strange), a large fleet of gas plants that are more modern and efficient, some natural resources that could be used more (at least for a certain period), Italian industrial skills to be developed and valorised, strong growth of international markets, etc. etc. In short, the effort we make is to see the issues in all their complex facets, while being fully aware that the future in the medium-long term lies with renewables.
Then a nod to Grid Parity (an unfortunate expression that I use to understand each other), i.e. the possibility of producing with renewables in a competitive way without the need for subsidies. It is discounted in some countries (such as Spain). But it was presented to me as substantially acquired also in Italy by highly authoritative entrepreneurs during the strategic meeting of the OIR at the Four Seasons on 6 September last (which unfortunately he did not attend); but also confirmed by various other operators who obviously underline the conditions for this to happen: for example, insolation, distance from the network, etc. We will be holding a closed seminar for OIR partners in the coming weeks to discuss this. Obviously, the topic is very complex and largely depends on the supply chains considered.
In conclusion, I remain convinced that the country's main interest lies in reducing energy costs, otherwise the difficulties in the already very difficult international competition will worsen and that all operators in the sector must commit themselves in this direction.
Thanks again for the appreciated criticisms and observations.
Prof. Andrea Gilardoni
