Renewable sources are coping with the crisis and continue to advance. This is the case of photovoltaics but also of wind power which, with auctions in recent months, beats nuclear power in terms of cost of incentives. The latest report published by the Gse indicates that in 2013 Italy, also thanks to the reduction in primary energy consumption, can boast a 16,7% share of green energy on total domestic consumption. In fact, the 17% target imposed by Europe for 2020 can therefore be said to have been achieved.
But how did 2014 go and towards what new challenges is a sector that is one of the most dynamic in the national economy moving? “Renewable sources satisfied in 2014 (Terna data) almost 40% of the national electricity requirement. These are data that were unthinkable and unforeseeable until a few years ago,” he replies Agostino Re Rebaudengo, president of Assorinnovabili, in Rome for a conference on the changes awaiting the electricity market, organized together with Althesys.
So what is at the basis of this further advance?
“Due to this development favored by incentive mechanisms, the costs of technologies have decreased in recent years and will continue to decrease; for example, wind farms are competitive with nuclear ones, in fact, the British producers of Hinkley Point in Somerset (3.300 MW) will receive over 125 euro/Mwh (the equivalent at the current exchange rate of 92,5 pounds, the rate agreed by investors with the British Government) for 35 years; the Italian wind farms awarded the incentive in the last few months through a competitive auction procedure will receive a rate between 89 and 93,5 €/Mwh and for only 20 years”.
And on photovoltaics, what was the impact of this technological advance?
“The cost of energy produced by photovoltaics is now at least 30% lower than the cost of electricity drawn from the grid by the final consumer. Suffice it to say that in 1976 a photovoltaic Megawatt cost about 60 million US dollars; today only 0,6 million. With Efficient User Systems (Seu), in which electricity is sold at zero km from the producer directly to the consumer, it is possible to "capitalise" the cost reduction and make the most of the characteristic of renewable sources of being available everywhere . It is therefore necessary to strengthen and not slow down the development of the SEUs with contradictory regulation. The possibility of being able to sell energy to multiple consumers and the integration with accumulation systems are the two main directions of development”.
The electricity sector has gone through a period of profound changes. What awaits us for the future?
“In the coming years, the electricity sector will undergo a revolution similar to that which has taken place in information technology and mobile telephony. Two parallel facts unite the IT sector with that of renewables. First, the energy efficiency of renewables is experiencing its exponential growth in solar and wind; secondly, as in the Internet of communications where the fixed costs for the construction of the infrastructure are significant, but the marginal cost of exchanging information is practically nil, even in the Internet of energy which is just starting the fixed costs are significant , but the marginal cost of producing one kilowatt-hour of solar or wind is close to zero."
In short, will energy be increasingly digital?
“The Internet, renewable energy and distributed generation will soon merge, creating an Energy Internet that will change the way electricity is produced and distributed. We need a redesign of the Italian electricity sector market which, in compliance with European objectives, knows how to adapt to the changed characteristics of generation, transmission and consumption and knows how to grasp the challenging innovations that await us".
Are you asking for new rules?
“We ask that the new market rules be issued with an act of primary legislation. And they will have to allow, in compliance with the existing renewable energy plants, a further growth of renewables in a balanced market structure that favors their integration”.
