Renewables are the future, but they are also starting to be the past. In other words: an increasingly important part of Italy's renewable capacity is showing signs of age. This emerged during the webinar on renewable energy sources at European level, organized by the AGICI OIR Observatory led by Professor Andrea Gilardoni. The solution is in two English words: revamping and repowering, i.e. the modernization and upgrading of already installed plants, two operations necessary for the achievement of the famous sustainable energy objectives between now and 2030.
In Italy, once again, complex regulations and bureaucracy are holding back these interventions: according to what emerged from the AGICI conference, the problem that arises is the equalization, from an administrative point of view, of repowering interventions to new installations. This leads to long lead times and complicated procedures. On the other hand, wind energy would above all have great potential for renewal: an acceleration in Italy would allow the achievement of more than half of the PNIEC target for this technology due to repowering alone.
Moreover, repowering can also consist of only the reblading, i.e. replacement of the blades only (with an increase of +16% in production), or by a complete reconstruction of the plant with one of greater efficiency dimensions (with increases between +70% and +130%). The increase in power is accompanied by a reduction in soil consumption and a decrease in the number of turbines, allowing for optimal exploitation of the wind resource.
The modernization of photovoltaics is more advanced: the technical characteristics of the panels have evolved considerably, going from an average efficiency of 14% in 2006 almost 20% today. But even here, the replacement of obsolete panels with the latest generation ones would make it possible to increase Italian photovoltaic production by over 40%, for the same amount of land occupied. An opportunity that would be truly unthinkable not to seize.
The margin for upgrading solar is even higher than that of hydroelectric, despite the fact that the latter has an older fleet, and that it has been almost entirely built before the 70s. Thanks to the modernization of the plants, the extraordinary maintenance of the reservoirs and the application of advanced digital technologies, there would be an opportunity to increase production between +5% and +30%.
