Lack of information and prejudices: what is really holding back the race for renewables in Italy

In 2022, the year of the energy crisis that should have put wings on the feet of renewables, in Italy they produced just over 100 billion kWh (TWh), just 35% of national production. It is the lowest figure since 2014, the year of records, in which renewables covered 43% of national production. The hydroelectric crisis was crucial, the first renewable source in Italy, which in 2014 had set a production record, with almost 60 TWh, and which in 2022, due to drought, reached its lowest point , with less than 30 TWh: to find similar values ​​we need to go back to the 1950s, when, however, the installed power was one third of the current one. From 2014 to 2022, the production of electricity from geothermal and biomass remained practically unchanged and only wind and photovoltaic grew, going from 37 to 48 TWh. Too little, unfortunately, to compensate for the hydroelectric crisis and, above all, to get us on track towards the 2030 goal, the year in which the production of electricity from renewable sources in Italy should more than double today.

Yet 2022 has been hailed by some as the year of recovery for wind and photovoltaics, the two technologies that should support the bulk of the expected (or rather, desired!) growth in the coming years. According to Terna’s latest update, in the year that has just ended, in fact, around 3 GW of new wind and photovoltaic plants would have been installed, against 1.4 in the previous year. In reality, despite the doubling of new installed power, 2022 was another lost year for renewables. It was the year in which, according to the Government then in office, we would have achieved the (minimum) target of 5 GW of new plants, but knowing that already starting from the following year, i.e. the current one, this value would at least be due double up. In other words, in 2022 we went one-third as fast as needed. And every single year that passes where we don’t reach cruising speed, leads us to have to increase the pace in the next one.

Why in Italy, despite a theoretically favorable contingent situation due to the high prices of fossil fuels, do renewable sources continue to remain at a standstill, making our country bring up the rear among the other major European economies? Operators in the sector have been denouncing for years a series of obstacles that hold back the construction of new plants, obstacles ranging from too long and complex administrative procedures to the indiscriminate blockade operated by the Superintendences, with some Italian Regions even going so far as to put in place own moratoriums against new renewable plants. And yet, although everyone is now clear about the dramatic impacts of the ongoing climate crisis and, perhaps, also the goals to be achieved in the energy field within a few years, little or nothing has yet moved.

Listening to the public debate in recent months in which, due to the price and supply crisis, the energy issue, traditionally relegated to narrow spaces for insiders, has become mainstream, a deeper obstacle has appeared increasingly evident, which will probably feeds those mentioned above. This is the cultural deficit that characterizes not only the public debate, the one staged by the big generalist media and talk shows, but also the thinking of many political decision makers, representatives of the world of information or ordinary citizens. It is a deficit often linked to a summary or outdated knowledge of the topics covered, which leads us to think, more or less consciously, that renewables are actually an insufficient, if not completely wrong, response to the crisis we are experiencing. Because, for example, making too many could lead to an increase and not a reduction of our bills, or because it would risk destroying the landscape and jobs, or simply because an industrialized country like Italy powered only by renewable electricity could technically not exist . To unlock the incredible potential of renewable sources in our country, we need to fill this cultural deficit, addressing one by one the prejudices about these technologies that dwell in the souls of many more people than we could possibly imagine.

For this reason, with Italy for Climate we launched the “False myths” campaign a few months ago and inaugurated a platform that anyone who wants to get informed and updated can freely access. The platform contains the main false myths that have characterized the debate in recent months and, through a list of simple questions, attempts to clarify things in an understandable and well-referenced way. We hope that this, together with other similar initiatives that are emerging, will help build a more informed and serene public debate and implement, with new determination, those actions necessary to bring renewables to the right cruising speed.

(*Andrea Barbabella is coordinator of Italy for Climate)