Not only Covid or Quirinale, energy also deserves the broadest unity of politics because it is a “matter of national security”. Copasir, the special parliamentary oversight committee on secret services, unanimously voted on a report on energy security in the context of the ecological transition. A job started months ago, but which comes in the midst of a price crisis and which threatens to send the entire economy into a tailspin. For this reason, Copasir demonstrates unity and calls for unity from the institutions as the moment is truly dramatic.
Those with historical memories will remember the Yom Kippur War, back in 1973, which had a poisoned tail in the oil embargo by the Middle Eastern countries against the West. Well, that time Europe and in particular Italy came out with broken bones. Soaring prices, skyrocketing inflation, Italian products that went out of business, collapse of exports, unemployment, strikes and continuous protests: some historians have linked the oil embargo even to the Years of Lead. Here, Copasir is very worried. “Italy must implement a national national security plan – they write – with the widest agreement, so that it can remain valid and direct the strategic choices that the country will have to make in this sector in the long term. It must aim at pursuing an adequate technological and productive autonomy of the country in the energy sector, strengthening the national industry and research chains, in collaboration with European and Western partners, in consideration of Italy’s geopolitical position “.
And it starts precisely from geopolitical considerations. First of all on the precious gas. They write: “The achievement of greater autonomy in production must also be observed under the profile of the geopolitical context in which the countries from which the supply of most of the natural gas arriving in Italy are located”. The reference is to Russia from where 42% of foreign supplies come, followed by Algeria (14%), Qatar (11%), Norway (9%), Libya (8%) and the Netherlands (2%). Basically we are too dependent on countries that are not really friends. “Our country, as a strong importer of energy, is particularly sensitive to a series of threats of an exogenous nature, which must be carefully monitored, also linked to the geopolitical situation”.
On the other hand, renewable energy sources alone are not enough. To date, they cover only 20.2% of the national energy market, against 40.6% for natural gas and 33.1% for oil. The secret services themselves are on the alert. “The increase in the use of renewables guarantees indigenous energy production, but at the same time it can generate new dependencies on countries that export raw materials or components necessary for their exploitation and this factor must be taken into consideration when exploiting the energy mix that will feed the country and in its evolution over time “. Yes, because tying hands and feet to photovoltaic panels that are produced in China can turn out to be a bad business in the long run.
The Chinese, however, are a particularly tough competitor for Europeans. “In particular in the wind energy and battery production sectors, there is a need to have raw materials, such as rare earths, whose extraction takes place in geographical areas such as Africa where over time there has been a presence and a intense Chinese activity which also manifests itself in the operations connected with the refining of these raw materials, an indispensable phase for their use in production plants ». Copasir therefore invites to focus on its own resources, of hydroelectricity and national gas, and to secure the supply chain. On natural gas, “thanks to the flexibility of storage it can guarantee continuity in the production of electricity”.
It is striking that the President Adolfo Urso, Brothers of Italy, and the Vice President Federica Dieni, M5S, presented the Report. Also because there are some uncomfortable truths in the Report. The renewable energy deficit cannot be overcome in any way without an adequate transition period. In which period, the broadest mix of energy sources is indispensable. Even new offshore drilling is not excluded a priori, although we are aware of the outcome of the referendum: there is in fact the need to increase national gas production. It is necessary to speed up and perhaps centralize the procedures for the installation of new renewable, wind or photovoltaic plants, because there is too much local resistance.
In perspective, it is not even possible to renounce nuclear power at the start, whether it is the fourth generation one on which we are working in France (and which sees Enea in a consortium), or the revolutionary fusion one (where Eni is experimenting with more, and they seem to have one of the most advanced prototypes in the world). Some crucial hearings are mentioned. As regards fourth generation nuclear power, “Ansaldo Energia has expertise in the construction of the so-called Small Modular Reactors, which produce highly decaying radioactive waste, the quantity of which is partly reduced because it is possible to reuse the residues of fission as new fuel. They are based on cooling systems with molten lead salts or other molten salts that allow to increase the safety levels compared to traditional nuclear power plants that use water cooling systems. Such small reactors are currently in use in large vessels, such as submarines or aircraft carriers or large icebreakers. The small size and modularity that characterize these reactors make it possible to produce not only electricity but also heat and to modulate the power by combining several elements “. On fusion nuclear power, Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi told how they are collaborating with MIT in Boston and how in September 2021 they successfully tested “for the first time the magnetic confinement on which the functioning of the reactors is based to fusion. This experiment demonstrated the possibility of producing electricity from nuclear fusion, opening the way to a prospect that will make it possible to obtain large amounts of energy by exploiting a raw material substantially constituted by suitably treated sea water and which, unlike traditional nuclear power, does not produces radioactive waste ».
Some chapters seem like heresies for the Democratic Party or for the M5S, which also voted for this Report. But there is a basic reflection that unites them all: “Italy should equip itself with a national energy security plan that recognizes its specificities and tends to decrease the country’s energy dependence and increase its competitiveness in this area. . The same considerations are valid at a supranational level for the European Union which should draw up a European energy security plan with the same objectives ”.