On the night between Saturday 29 October and Sunday 30, solar time returns.
Summer time in seven months saved Italian bills 190 million euros. Not only that: thanks to the lower energy consumption, the emission of 200 thousand tons of CO2 was avoided.
This was revealed by Terna, the public electricity grid company.
Sunday 30 at three in the morning daylight saving time goes away, solar time returns. But there are already those who want it to stay all year round: the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima) and Non-Profit Consumerism have collected 256,000 signatures for this.
They argue that, with these energy prices, two and a half billion euros would be saved in 2023.
For this reason, they are asking Prime Minister Meloni to extend the solar time for at least one month, on an experimental basis. In the 7 months of summer time, according to Terna, the Italian electricity system has saved around 190 million euros because since 27 March it has benefited from lower consumption of 420 million kwh, equal to the average annual requirement of around 150 thousand households. This has allowed a reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, equal to 200 thousand tons.
From 2004 to 2022, according to Terna, the lower consumption of electricity for Italy due to summer time was a total of about 10.9 billion kWh and led to savings for citizens of about 2 billion euros.
For this reason, the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima) and Non-Profit Consumerism in a few weeks collected 265,000 signatures on a petition for the maintenance of summer time.
“We are now in numbers from Popular Referendum proposals – explain the president Sima, Alessandro Miani, and the president of Consumerismo, Luigi Gabriele – At this point we do not exclude formally taking this path, given that the digital platform for the signing of the abrogative referendums “.
The presidents of the two associations ask the premier, Giorgia Meloni, “to find a way to freeze the switch to solar time, scheduled for October 30, for a month, thus allowing the electricity grid operator to verify the real savings in the field obtainable in economic and environmental terms “.
In addition to energy savings, “which with the increase in gas prices has gone from estimates of 500 million a year based on Terna data to over 2 and a half billion euros for 2023 alone – they explain – there would be an equal cut in climate-altering emissions to 200,000 tons of Co2, equivalent to that absorbed by planting 2 million new trees, with benefits for human and planetary health ».