Energy, government late: wind industry on the attack

President Anev Simone Togni criticizes the delays of the executive and the commitments made by Di Maio. The decree on renewables has not accepted the advice of industrialists. Projects and investments at risk.

Renewables, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility are industry sectors that will drive global employment growth in the coming years. Anyone who doesn't think so, raise your hand. Yet the government, which exposes these concepts very often, is late on the measures it should have taken. In the week of controversy over the drills and the Confindustria document on opportunities in the energy and environmental sector, the leading Italian wind energy industry is making itself heard again. We are tired of waiting, says Simone Togni, president of Anev, the trade association.

In an interview with our newspaper, Togni had outlined the scenario for the next few years, investments, the redevelopment of plants by 2020, provided that the government and Parliament accelerated the measures announced several times. Instead we are stuck. And once again the snail's pace risks not allowing us to seize all the opportunities deriving from the energy scenarios of the coming years. The controversy that risked (?) the government crisis on the authorizations for new hydrocarbon searches is its symptom. Even the discomfort of the renewable energy industry is the figure of a serious symptom for the compromised business. We preserve the subsoil from who knows what disasters, but then we continue to circulate with petrol or diesel cars, we need oil and gas for many more years, we struggle with geothermal energy and so on. However, the decree on renewables that Di Maio had announced in July at an Anev conference was sent to the EU Commission. Late and above all without having implemented the proposals of the wind farms, say the operators. In other words: disappointment. Passenger ? You wouldn't think it reading what Togni writes in an article in Terra Mia magazine, shared with his organization. He's not the only leader from the renewables front.

There are currently few government responses and they are expecting a return from the in-out road to Brussels with the authorizations envisaged for new installations and new wind energy production. The story, let it be said, does not fall entirely on the shoulders of the Conte government. It has been three years since Italy has had to put its hand to the renewable energy system in line with climate objectives. The moment is right for our industry. Especially since in the rooms that count in Europe the Energy and Climate Plan is being examined, which will establish once and for all how to proceed. “ It is really disheartening – explains Togni – to note how even this executive, born under the auspices of a great change of pace with respect to a policy sitting on retrograde positions with respect to the energy policy of the last 50 years, is instead slowly conforming to the previous governments much criticised." It takes courage, say the industrialists, and more specifically the ability to believe in the development of clean sources. If energy imports continue to weigh on the budget and on spending in order not to bankrupt businesses and allow Italians to continue to live in a dignified way, someone must be responsible for not keeping up with the times. With a gradual transition towards renewables, while fossil fuels cannot yet be abandoned. Leaving aside, for the sake of country, the discourse on infrastructures, on the strengthening of transport and distribution networks, on power plants, on tax breaks. The Conte government must show foresight to remedy the schizophrenia it is demonstrating, they tell Anev. What is at stake are the objectives - not only Italian, evidently - but European and global ones that demand efficient tools to achieve them. The Italian energy system has a high technological content appreciated throughout the world also for its ability to innovate. Dozens of large and small companies have accepted the challenge of transitioning to a new energy and environmental order. But what if the state is missing?