PPAs and National Energy & Climate Plans: high on Italy’s wind energy agenda

On Wednesday 7 November, WindEurope participated in the Key Wind conference in Rimini, Italy, organised by the Italian Wind Energy Association, ANEV. As the only reference wind power show in the Mediterranean basin, the Balkans and the Middle East, the event gathered high-level speakers from the Italian government, associations, businesses, banks and TSOs.

 

The event had three primary points of discussion: cooperation between regions and central government to install more wind, PPAs, and the forthcoming National Energy & Climate Plan (NECP) for Italy.

Like other Member States of the EU, Italy is now drafting its NECP Plans. WindEurope stressed that the key to a smooth supply chain development in Italy and Europe is technology-specific tenders and a 5-year visibility for the volumes, timeline and budget of renewable energy deployment.

This week, the Italian renewables and energy efficiency association Coordinamento FREE published a position paper reporting that, by 2030, Italy could have 17 GW installed, producing 36 TWh of power and avoiding 27 million tons of CO₂. This would translate into 67,000 jobs, directly and indirectly related to wind power by 2030, particularly located in economically-depressed areas.

Currently, Italy has almost 10 GW of wind energy installed, corresponding to 5% of its domestic electricity demand. But Terna, the Italian TSO, stressed that renewables are the future and therefore the question is not if the transition happens, but when. The Italian government ‘should be bolder’ in supporting this transition by providing more visibility to the entire sector, including the national TSO, which is suffering from overly bureaucratic permitting procedures.

As far as revenue stabilisation mechanisms are concerned, WindEurope and other panellists stressed the importance corporate renewable PPAs as an instrument to provide the right signals to the wind industry while supporting Italy in deploying more wind power, keeping in mind not only the 2030 EU renewables targets but also the long term (2050) decarbonisation strategy. One of the key elements of discussion here was the key role that aggregators should play, given the fact that the Italian business landscape is composed primarily of small to medium-sized enterprises.

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