Environment, Italy has awakened. And it suddenly became avant-garde. True or only apparently true? The data presented in the Sixth National Conference on Energy Efficiency organized in Rome by the Friends of the Earth indicate that in 2013 and 2014 Italy substantially achieved, six years ahead of schedule, the objectives of the European Union's energy-environmental policies against climate change.
In particular, in 2014 the greenhouse gas emissions in Italy decreased by about 19% compared to 1990 in relation to an overall EU target of 20% for 2020; the penetration of renewable sources in final energy consumption in Italy reached approximately 2014% in 17, achieving the mandatory 2020 target set by the EU at 17%, and raised to 20% by the National Energy Strategy (SEN 2013); in 2014 the consumption of primary energy (used as an indicator for energy efficiency) will mark a reduction of around 31% (more than the 20% set as a 2020 target by the EU) compared to the consumption envisaged by the reference scenario indicated by the EU.
“These results should have been a success – said Tommaso Franci in presenting the association's annual report – but in reality they largely derive from the effects of the economic crisis which has worsened in recent years and which has brought to light many contradictions in the European strategy of the so-called 20-20-20. The second half of 2014 could have been an opportunity to overcome these contradictions. But it was instead a missed opportunity”. The association renewed its proposal to adopt the energy intensity criterion, considered a more effective indicator for expressing the improvement in energy efficiency in a way linked to the growth of the country's competitiveness and not to the crisis. In fact, energy intensity expresses the relationship between a unit of wealth or production and the amount of energy needed to produce it. And thus it allows to record the actual improvement in energy efficiency much better than the simple trend in consumption influenced by the crisis.
So if this is the truth about our degree of energy efficiency, Italy still remains a virtuous and well-positioned country compared to its European partners on this front. "The "Italian recipe" - said Rosa Filippini, president of Friends of the Earth, who has been fighting for years for the recognition of a priority role of efficiency in energy policies - consists precisely in the adoption of energy efficiency as the cornerstone of policies of economic recovery".
Efficiency, on the other hand, has so far remained somewhat of the Cinderella of energy policies, bypassed by the boom in renewables. Yet, during the Conference, there were examples and suggestions on what could be done. A2A, for example, is betting its cards on district heating in its strong areas such as Brescia, Milan and Bergamo. “The basic idea on which modern urban district heating systems are based – explained Lorenzo Spadoni – is the re-use of the heat sources available in the area which would otherwise be dispersed. For this reason, A2A also recovers the heat produced by third-party systems in its systems”. Edison for example. There are also examples of district heating abroad: Spaoni added, Rotterdam is building a 26 km ridge to transport the heat from the Rozenburg waste-to-energy plant and from the nearby industrial center to the urban area.
Edison has created a structure that designs and implements efficiency measures for its customers both in the field of self-production (cogeneration, heat pumps, photovoltaic and solar thermal) and in the energy optimization chain (from electric motors to lighting, all insulation, hot-cold, etc.). And he presented case histories with savings made for a value of 35.000 to 350.000 euros per year, depending on the case.
Attachments: Dossier_The_Italian_ricetta_12-2014.pdf
