The time for incentives and public subsidies is over, but in the energy future of Mediterranean le renewable however, they will play a crucial role, managing to attract significant investments. Current financial and technological resources are sufficient to create a new market capable of self-sustaining, but first of all it is necessary "to overcome today's model, and governments need to intervene on this front". This was stated yesterday by Massimo Mondazzi, CFO of Eni, who spoke in Rome during the EY (Ernst & Young) Strategic Growth Forum.
In the Mediterranean macro-area it is evident the rift that separates the North (where population growth is minimal and energy consumption is stable) from the South (strong growth on both fronts). According to the numbers presented by Mondazzi himself, last year as much as 73% of electricity in the southern countries of the area was produced from natural gas, while 13% came from coal, 9% from oil, 4% from hydroelectric plants and only 1% from renewables. In the northern part of the region, on the other hand, the data are profoundly different: 33% of electricity was generated by nuclear power, 20% by gas, 16% by coal and the same by hydroelectricity, 13% by renewables and the 2% from petroleum.
“In countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal e France, the renewable energy market is already mature – underlined Carmelo Scalone, executive vice-president of new business development EDF Energies Nouvelles during the same meeting –, what is missing is rather the willingness to grow the market by removing regulatory barriers".
To weigh is above all the lack of general coordination of energy policies within the European Union. Massimo Derchi, managing director of Erg Renew, recalls that “a study was presented in Davos which demonstrated that Europe wastes billions of euros every year due to the distribution of infrastructures for the exploitation of renewable energies. For example, in Germany photovoltaics are six times more developed than in Spain, where, however, the solar radiation to be exploited is decidedly greater”.
To resolve contradictions of this type, according to Derchi – which he also admits the responsibilities of individuals, who have "defended an unsustainable model for years" - it is now necessary that "individual countries give up part of their sovereignty to the European Commission also in terms of energy policy. Otherwise, if everyone wants to continue to have full autonomy, chaos will also continue ”. In general terms, however, “it will be inevitable a Darwinian selection of the players in the coming years: the large companies and some niche ones will survive, while the medium-sized ones will remain in the game only if they know how to contain operating costs and adequately develop technologies".
A different speech applies instead to he south of the Mediterranean region, “where governments should invest in infrastructure – continued Scalone – and guarantee greater political and regulatory stability”. In particular, “the North African countries are undertaking an important transition to market economies – specified Harry Boyd Carpenter, senior banker of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – and the development of the great potential of renewables will play a leading role in this process”.
However, it is evident that, in the Mediterranean as elsewhere, a single type of energy is not enough: “The real objective is to select the best possible combination of sources – concluded Mondazzi – and at the same time improve the transmission of energy, which affects significantly on costs. It is on these fronts that companies are asking governments to act.
