The decarbonization
On this path, the challenge to reduce CO2 becomes important. Three paths indicated by Giuseppe Ricci, president of Confindustria Energia, to address it need renewables with wind and solar, energy efficiency (domestic and civil) and decarbonisation. And the sub-lines such as biomethane. «We must push hard on renewables and electrification and on other solutions we have – he added -: biofuel transport, valorisation of waste and waste which are an enormous resource. Importing energy costs money, we have waste that nobody wants to deal with. However, they become a resource and can be transformed into products ». Then there is an aspect linked to the capture of CO2 for storage and reuse, (storage is available immediately, technologies for reuse are being studied). In this context, there is also the need to look also at the transition and not at the full solution “in ten years”.
The way of hydrogen
Valeria Termini, full professor of economics at the University of Rome3, as well as a member of the UN High Level Dialogue on Energy 2021-COP 26, also shares the same opinion.In addition to talking about renewable sources, she also stressed the need to carry out research for hydrogen and battery building technologies.
Starace (Enel): initiatives for 26 billion
In this game that sees a horizon of several billion euros and important projects, there are those who, while presenting a long list of initiatives, focus attention on the aspect concerning timing and bureaucracy. Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel, recalling the initiatives for 26 billion euros presented by the group, recalled that «The green energy transition needs to speed up times. For the part that concerns us, compared to 26 billion of possible initiatives, only 6 billion are the funds that we are going to request and that we need to start industrial initiatives. The other 20 need structural reforms to make the process happen. Against these investments, we calculate about 100 thousand new employees, to be trained, with a path that requires a lot of attention ».
Enough with coal and gas in Sardinia
And Starace again, in a passage on the situation relating to Sardinia: «It makes no sense to build a gas plant. It would be the most expensive gas in the world. Then if someone wants to do it, for heaven’s sake, but we don’t consider it a great industrial choice ». Not only that, “when Terna’s Tyrrhenian Link electrical connection will see the light, Sardinia will be connected to Italy with a 2,300 MegaWatt cable, compared to the current 1,300 MW and it will be possible to do without coal plants, therefore even a system of regasifiers ».
Descalzi (Eni): Energy as an integrated mosaic
For his part, Eni’s Claudio Descalzi emphasized the problems associated with demand substitution processes. «If we want to eliminate gas and coal, we must change the demand, otherwise we will face big problems for people and energy-intensive companies. And these will face very high prices – he said -. Renewables in Italy are growing but there is always the problem of continuity throughout the day. We have to talk about renewables, but know that energy must be an integrated mosaic of different sources, and it has always been like that ». As for the neutrality of coal by 2050, we are studying a mix in which the part of renewables is essential. We are tying them to our customers, so that we take the burden of cleaning up the energy content we sell. It applies to electricity and gas, which will be replaced by biogas ». All in a “gradual” process. “We need to work on demand, otherwise we only create a big gap between supply and demand and the increase in prices”.