Gas prices which have far exceeded 300 euros per MWh have solicited many proposals in the Italian newspapers. Some exasperated, others reasonable: from the appeal to rationality to build new nuclear power plants, to gas price cap, to the call for Norway to give back some of the profits of the last 50 years of gas sales to Europe. The adjustment will probably take place with the recession which will decrease demand from businesses.
However, it is peculiar that all the proposals presented in the newspapers concern the government, electricity producers and businesses. A major player in the economy is missing: the families, which represent a quarter of energy consumption in Italy. Families are mentioned only to say that they too will be rationed. Yet they can be protagonists of the emergency solution for energy independence from the various gas and oil producing autocrats, which is also the long-term one to achieve net zero carbon emissions in 2050.
Households are part of the solution to the energy crisis
We have seen in recent years how ecological incentives such as the 50-90% state subsidy for facades or the infamous 110% state almsgiving to rich and poor for home insulation have mobilized savings of families and contributed to the post-Covid19 recovery.
The installation of photovoltaic panels on the roofs of condominiums, where the majority of the urban population lives, which is 83% of the Italian population, could quickly – at the moment 2-3 months not years – provide electrical autonomy to families. Since household energy consumption accounts for a quarter of total consumption, if all households participated, the industrial production, which cannot use renewable energy directly, would be spared the need for rationing and closures.
The 3 necessary measures against the crisis
It won't be every household that will be installing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of their homes and apartment buildings this fall, but we can start introducing three necessary measures.
First you need to make installation required in new buildings.
Then, the installers need to be equipped with panels and personaland to meet the demand. That doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. Enel is considered a European and world champion in renewable technologies and in the digital management of networks, (but abroad!) on its Italian site it has been presenting the following announcement for months: "in the last period we have received a number of requests for site inspections and installations relating to rooftop photovoltaics much higher than what has been recorded so far. With a view to guaranteeing our customers contact and order management times in line with our service standards, we are sorry to inform you that at the moment we are unable to process new requests".
It is therefore necessary a Commissioner to supply us with panels of the latest generation, produced in Europe and Asia, but avoiding, as far as possible, Chinese panels in the event of an invasion of Taiwan and related sanctions.
Condominiums are notoriously not a place for quick or ideological decisions, but the skyrocketing electricity and gas bills and the risk of rationing this winter have made independence from Putin a daily concern. The cost of installing the panels and storage could be anticipated by the banks with the due discount, as in previous incentives, and a return equal to the bills to be paid until the extinction of our star, it is unbeatable, particularly in a context of inflation that is not as transient as hoped.
This in the best of cases and governments. Hence also the uncertainties of families. Until now, the installation has been mediated by network operators who buy the excess production of consumption at 4 cents per kWh and sell it in case of need at 27 cents per kWh. To favor the networks, the installers, often the same company, oversize the plant, thus reducing the possibility of self-production for all condominiums. And common areas such as roofs cannot be used, excluding some condominiums from using them. The legal figure of a group of self-consumers of renewable energy already exists in our legal system. However, the networks need to resign themselves to theself-production of electricity by households, a measure equally necessary to enlist the savings and household initiative in the project.
The PNRR provides funding for over two billion euros, up to 100% of eligible costs, for groups of self-consumers of renewable energy in municipalities with less than 5000 inhabitants. But the majority of the inhabitants are not there.
The Draghi government has confiscated the extra profits of energy producers and retailers to redistribute them to families in need. But with the return of the parties to the government, no one will disturb the possible lenders any more. Even for the tight times before winter where Putin will use the gas weapon of blackmail to the fullest, these measures for the energy independence of families are part of the ordinary administration in the current state of emergency.
