Building bonuses e Super bonus 110% continue to fuel the political debate, especially with regard to the Isee ceiling of 25 thousand euros on single-family houses and houses. And on the issue of incentives, political discussions are underway based on the availability of ever-scarce resources, which divide the majority, especially in view of the budget maneuver. But these bonuses are a decisive tool for achieving the objectives of energy efficiency. Given that over the last 15 years, thanks to tax deduction mechanisms, over 53 billion euros have been invested: of which 45 billion by 2020 with the 65% Ecobonus and 8 billion with the 110% Superbonus. And as regards the energy saving objectives envisaged by national and European plans, they have been achieved respectively at 80% and 90%, led by the residential sector. These are the main results of the tenth "Annual report on energy efficiency" and the twelfth "Annual report on tax deductions", prepared by Aeneas.
In particular, in terms of65% eco-bonus – the mechanism to encourage energy efficiency in end uses introduced in 2007 – over 2020 billion in investments have been made by 45, with a total saving of around 19 thousand GWh/year, deriving essentially from partial interventions on single real estate units. Again in 2020, over 486 energy redevelopment interventions were completed which made it possible to save 1.362 GWh/year.
After just over a year of implementation of the Superbonus 110%, the total investment eligible for deduction as at 30 November amounted to 11,94 billion euros, of which 8,28 billion for interventions already concluded.
On the front of the mandatory savings 2014-2020 established by the Energy Efficiency Directive, approximately 297.300% of the target of 91 GWh/year was achieved, reaching 270.300 GWh/year; the major contributions came from white certificates (97.600 GWh/year) and from the tax deduction system (120.900 GWh/year).
As for the Action Plan for Energy Efficiency (PAEE) 2017, the savings achieved in the 2011-2020 period made it possible to achieve 82% of the indicated objective, compared to 77% in the previous year. In 2020, 148 thousand GWh/year were saved, mainly due to the contribution of the residential sector, with a reduction of 73.620 GWh/year, equal to 172,5% of the PAEE target. Followed, in percentage terms of achievement of the objective: the tertiary sector with 9.537 GWh/year (66,6%), industry with 38.260 GWh/year (64,5%) and, finally, transport with 26.630 GWh /year (41,6%).
The report also shows that the health emergency from Covid-19 has also had a negative impact on the energy poverty. According to estimates, in 2020 energy poverty in Italy could amount to around 10% compared to 8,3% in 2019 and 8,8% in 2018. The most affected regions are those of the South, with rates between 13 %-20%.
“Tax incentives are a decisive tool for achieving energy efficiency objectives. As for their future, for some time now we have made ourselves available to give technical support to the Ministry of Ecological Transition for a rationalization that aims to reduce their number and simplify procedures", he underlined Ilaria Bertini, director of the Energy Efficiency Department of Enea.
With reference to the ecological transition, Roberto Cingolani, Minister of Ecological Transition, said: “It is about making an epochal energy transition. Enea has all the technical skills to be able to follow this process and will become central to understanding the different directions to take. The plan that envisages 55% decarbonisation by 2030 is what can be done with current technology, but we know that it is not enough. Precisely for this reason, Enea's role will be central: we are talking about an enormous opportunity because now the energy sector becomes the heart of a great global change”.
"The incentives have made it possible to redevelop an important part of the housing stock, to reduce consumption and to relaunch a sector in difficulty such as the building sector - he commented Gilberto Dialuce, president of Enea – The next ten years will be decisive for respecting the limit of 1,5 °C by 2030 and to achieve this objective it will be necessary, for example, to at least double the energy redevelopment rate of buildings, in line with what has been highlighted by the Renovation Wave launched by the European Commission”.
And in reference to rising energy prices, Aurelius Queen, delegate of the president of Confindustria for energy transition, underlined the importance of “focusing on energy efficiency, on electricity generation from renewables, on the diffusion of green gas and e-fuels. Italy, as demonstrated by the Enea report, is already ahead but that is not enough. We have to do more."
