Global efforts to achieve more ambitious climate goals aim to meet the growing demand for energy with an increasingly significant contribution from renewable energy sources (RES). The guidelines implemented by the governments of the main countries are aimed at promoting policies capable of doubling the weight of renewable sources over the next 25 years and achieving an improvement in overall energy efficiency.
The main RES generation sector remains the hydroelectric one which, with 19% of the new capacity installed in 2015, represents over 60% of the total cumulative power of RES plants. In parallel with the increase in production, there has been a significant reduction in generation costs, especially for wind and photovoltaic power.
The objectives for European countries in terms of renewable energies have been governed by a special directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. This directive sets two objectives for Italy for 2020: a) an overall one which provides for the satisfaction of an amount equal to 17% of gross final energy consumption from RES; b) a sectoral one which consists in satisfying 10% of total consumption for transport with energy from RES. Eurostat data show that among the 28 EU member states, around a third have already achieved their national targets for 2020.
In Italy, renewable sources have gradually acquired a primary role in the national energy system. The data for 2016 show that the share of gross final energy consumption attributable to RES reached 17,6%, providing a significant contribution for the production of heat (thermal sector) and for the production of electricity.
In the electricity sector, the approximately 700.000 plants powered by renewable sources installed throughout the country generated an effective production of electricity of 2016 TWh in 105,8. The renewable source that has provided the most important contribution is hydraulics, followed by solar sources, bioenergy, wind and geothermal sources (6 TWh).
The development of renewable sources in Italy has been supported over the years by numerous production incentive mechanisms. The amount of incentives in Italy is traditionally the highest in Europe and has produced a significant impact on the cost of energy. The progress achieved and the burden on energy costs have recently led, in line with the national energy strategy, to a program of remodulation of the incentives with diversified measures between the various sources.
Attachments: Renewable energy: Italy beyond the 2020 European target
