Italy is lagging far behind other major EU economies when it comes to taking action to fully decarbonise the EU electricity system by 2035 and align with the 1.5°C UN climate goal.
Analysis by Ember and ECCO found that Italy is aiming for 55% renewables in its electricity mix by 2030, compared to targets over 75% in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
It noted that Italy’s 2030 wind and solar target is only 34% of consumption, “significantly less” than other countries such as Denmark (94%), the Netherlands (72%), Spain (72%), Portugal (54%) and Greece (47%).
From 2015 to 2020, Italy installed less than 2GW of wind capacity and 3GW of solar capacity, the report said.
In 2020, wind and solar only accounted for 16.5% of Italy’s electricity production, it added.
“Unless plans are updated, Italy risks being one of the EU’s largest producers of electricity from fossil gas by 2030,” Ember stated.
Enel, Italy’s largest power utility has recently announced a total fossil gas phase-out by 2040. However, the Italian capacity mechanism is enabling utilities to invest in new gas-fired baseload plants from 2024 to 2040.
The research also found that Italian wholesale electricity prices have almost tripled in the last year, and the majority of this increase can be attributed to soaring gas prices.
In comparison it is now three times cheaper to generate electricity from new onshore wind and solar PV in Italy.