Italian Organization Forecasts Renewable Energy Investments to Exceed $58 Billion

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Italian Observatory of Renewable Energy has forecast that between 2009 and 2020, a total of $58 billion will be invested in the renewable energy sector of the country. Italy holds the unenviable record of having the highest dependency on energy imports within the G8 group of nations, with about 86% of its energy requirements met through imports. Efforts are on to change this statistic with investments being made in homegrown energy resources. Alongside this requirement is the need to increase the country's amount of renewable energy to meet the European Union's (EU) overall target of 20% of energy being supplied from renewable sources by 2020.

Renewable consumption is classified as the direct use of renewable fuels, such as biofuels, together with the portion of electricity and heat produced from renewable sources such as wind and solar. In the case of Italy, this target has been set at 17% by 2020, compared to 5.2% in 2005.

Italy has traditionally relied on hydroelectric power from dams located in the Alps, but in recent years the power generated from these sources has been equaled or even exceeded by power imports from countries to the north. Natural gas supplies in Italy have dwindled recently and last year contributed just 12% of Italy's total power demand of more than 330 terawatt-hours (TWh). The oilfields in Italy provided just 7% of the total demand.

Italy has the potential for several promising sources of renewable energy, notably geothermal--in which Italy is already a leader within Europe--hydroelectric, wind, solar and biomass. The Observatory forecasts that wind will be the biggest winner in terms of investments, with an estimated 43% of investments being directed to windfarms. The Italian oil companies association, Unione Petrolifera, forecasts that wind farms could be capable of generating up to 20.5 TWh of power by 2020. Unione Petrolifera also forecasts that geothermal power, generated using steam produced from hot rocks located several kilometers underground, will reach around 7.5 TWh by 2020.

Last year, biomass-fed plants supplied almost 4 TWh of electricity. This sector is expected to receive 23% of the total forecast investment of $58 billion, which could enable this source to supply up to 11 TWh of power by 2020. Of the remaining renewable sources of energy, the Observatory estimates that photovoltaic and thermodynamic energy supplies will receive around 17% of the total investment, while hydroelectricity schemes will benefit from 12% of the total investment.

Plans are already underway to add to Italy's solar power generation. Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL) (Rome Italy) plans to have a new solar thermal plant with a capacity of 5 MW in operation by the end of the year. In January this year, Econcern NV (Utrecht, Netherlands) announced plans to build a 42-MW solar power plant in Puglia, located in southern Italy. The project, named Project Trullo, is expected to add 15% to Italy's currently installed solar power generation capacity of 280 MW. Econcern anticipates that Italy's installed capacity for solar power generation will grow to as much as 5,000 MW by 2020.

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