Energy: from renewables to gas, here are Italy's report cards
The snapshot of the state of the art contained in the report produced by the department headed by Gilberto Pichetto Fratin and presented at the Rome headquarters of the Gse
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Key points
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Household energy consumption down in an environment that remains complex. Less dependence on foreign supplies. And again, sprint on renewables, which are an increasingly important component of the Italian energy mix. These are some of the data that emerged from the snapshot taken by the Annual Report on the National Energy Situation 2024, which was carried out by the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security headed by Gilberto Pichetto Fratin and whose results were illustrated in these days in Rome, at the headquarters of the Gestore dei Servizi Energetici (GSE), in the presence of the owner of Mase and the company's CEO Vinicio Mosè Vigilante.
The report's working group
.But what is the state of the art? The report, which was drawn up by a working group composed of representatives from Mase, the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, the Bank of Italy, Enea, Gse, Istat, Inapp, Eni, Snam and Terna, reconstructs the Italian situation segment by segment, starting with the primary demand for energy, which fell by 4.4% to 143.961 thousand tonnes of oil equivalent (ktoe), compared to the previous year's demand of 150,531 ktoe. This gross energy availability in 2023 consisted of 35.0% natural gas, 37.9% oil and petroleum products, 19.9% renewables, 3.3% solid fuels, 3.1% electricity, and 0.8% waste.
Imports
.The share of net imports in gross energy availability decreased from 79.2% in 2022 to 74.6% in 2023, improving our country's dependence on foreign sources of supply. In particular, there was a sharp decline in net imports of solid fuels (-2,911 ktoe, -38%), renewable energies and bioliquids (-621 ktoe, -22%) and natural gas (-8.823 ktoe, -15%), while there was a smaller decrease in net imports of oil and petroleum products (-1,926 ktoe, -2.5%), offset by a considerable growth in net imports of electricity (+711 ktoe, +15%).
Domestic Production
.With reference to domestic production, there was an increase of 1,461 ktoe, or 4.2% of the previous year's production, mainly attributable to an increase in energy produced from renewable sources (+838 ktoe, +3.2%), caused by the growth of hydroelectric power due to favourable climatic phenomena, and an increase in additives among petroleum products (the latter to be confirmed).
Final Energy Consumption
.Final energy consumption decreased overall by 2.8% year-on-year to 107,666 thousand tonnes of oil equivalent (ktoe), compared to 110,778 in 2022. This decrease manifested itself, in particular, in the industry sector (-6.4%) and in the residential sector (-8.1%), compared to a significant increase in services (+5.2%) and a smaller increase (+0.8%) in transport. Final consumption was 32.7% in transport, 24.4% in residential, 20.4% in industry, 15.0% in services, and 7.5% in the remaining sectors. In terms of sources, final consumption was mainly met by oil and petroleum products (39.8%), natural gas (27.1%), electricity (21.2%) and renewables (10.1%). In 2023, electricity consumption of 23,959 ktoe was met 83.2% from domestic production, which amounted to 253.7 TWh (-6.7% compared to 2022) and the remaining 16.8% from net imports from abroad, amounting to 51.3 TWh, up 19.2% compared to the previous year.
