Renewables, from bureaucracy to concessions: all the obstacles

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Remove the obstacles for the development of renewables, with the streamlining of authorization procedures, shared and clear rules, greater coordination, support measures. This is the request that wind, photovoltaic, biogas and hydroelectric operators presented together with the Renewable Sources Summit on the first day of the K.ey: The Energy Transition Expo in Rimini. The proposals of the associations present – Anev, Anie Rinnovabili, Assoidroelettrica, Cib, Coordination Free, Federidroelettrica and Italia Solare – underlined the need for an acceleration on renewables in view of 2030, with the installation of 85 new GW of renewable power and of 80 GWh of new large-scale storage capacity. An objective that would make it possible to achieve over 360 billion euros of economic benefits, in terms of added value for the supply chain and related industries, and 540,000 new jobs in the electricity sector and its industrial supply chain, according to operators’ estimates.

70% renewable in 2030

«It is already a great result – said Gianni Silvestrini, president of K.ey’s technical-scientific committee at the opening of the meeting – to have put all these associations together in the common effort to produce 70% of green electricity by 2030. Now it is it is necessary to make the qualitative leap: on the one hand the companies that have been ready for this task for some time, on the other the institutions from which we ask for a further commitment».

The permissions node

The issue of bureaucracy and permits continues to be in the sights of operators, raised by the presidents of Anev (National Wind Energy Association), Simone Togni and of Elettricità Futura, Agostino Re Rebaudengo, according to whom it is necessary to remove the obstacles still present today both related to the role of local superintendents in the authorization process and both as regards the legislation on the places where it is permitted to install the systems.

The meeting was attended by, among others, Alberto Pinori (Anie Rinnovabili) who spoke of the need to create a system to bring together supply and demand, Piero Gattoni (Italian Biogas Consortium) who underlined how important it is to carry forward development strategies, but equally necessary to preserve and not waste what has been achieved, especially in a sector that has the goal of producing 2.3 billion biomethane by 2026.

The revamping of dams

The hydroelectric world was represented by Paolo Picco (Federidroelettrica), who recalled that over 40% of the production of renewables comes from water and that the industrial chain is entirely Italian. He then added that the problems today are linked to the revamping and repowering of the plants, given that on average the largest plants are 70 years old. Stefano Luciani of Assoidroelettrica, which brings together small hydroelectric producers, also agrees, who made it known that, given the failure to extend the concessions, there are no projects that can be banked: leaving the sector in a state of regulatory uncertainty, blocks all investments . Luciani also touched on the knot of fees, which Italian operators pay based on power, but which become a problem with the reduction of production and the consequent lowering of revenues.