Presentation of the IREX Annual Report 2024 – Althesys
At the prestigious location of the Ara Pacis in Rome, the conference “Renewables, the hour of choices. The Transition in the Europe to Come,” during which the new IREX Annual Report by ALTHESYS Strategic Consultants was presented.
The energy sector is experiencing rapid changes, facing numerous challenges on the path to green transition. In Italy, the number of projects in renewables and storage is growing, while the policy and regulatory framework is evolving. During the meeting, operators and institutions were able to discuss the trends highlighted by the new IREX Report, entitled “Renewables, storage, grids, market: how is the Italian electricity sector changing?” to understand the transition and discuss investment, agrivoltaics and the future of grid infrastructure.
Andrea Ghiselli, CEO of EF Solare Italia, was a speaker in the panel discussion “Investing in energy in Italy: new perspectives, old obstacles.”
The words of the CEO
“In the last four weeks the main discussion at the country system level is related to land consumption, an issue that we cannot ignore as operators. This necessarily entails some reflections and also uncertainties in investments. Awareness of this must guide our choices. Right now we are striving to achieve very ambitious decarbonization goals in renewables, but in practice, the evolution of the body of regulation does not seem to be conducive to achieving these goals.
We are also seeing a market evolution that seems to make the spot market marginal, with significant effects on existing plants that will come off incentives in the coming years. These plants should be protected considering also that they do not result in additional land use. Finally, and this is a crucial point that is often underestimated, with important impacts on the LCOE of new renewable installations, we must consider the shortage of human capital: nearly 700,000 more people are needed in the European PV and wind sector by 2030. The energy transition has already started but the timeframe for training STEM profiles is at least three to four years, therefore, investments in human capital are needed to bridge this timing mismatch and meet European targets,” said the CEO of EF Solare Italia.