Renewables, the cost of incentives rises to 9.6 billion. Here is the impact on bills
The bill is up on last year's figure due to increased electricity production from green energies
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Key points
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The expected increase in production from renewable sources will raise to EUR 9.6 billion the weight on the bill of green energy incentives, which in 2024 stood at EUR 9.3 billion (including special schemes). The estimate comes from the report of the Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (Arera) on support instruments just published on the website of the Authority headed by Stefano Besseghini.
Stable costs in the coming years
.According to the analysis, despite the uncertainty linked to the trend in electricity market prices, it seems reasonable "to expect an overall stable trend, around 8.5-9.5 billion euro per year, of the revenue needed for the account for new plants fuelled by renewable and assimilated sources, until 2031", which is the year in which the drop in the revenue needed will begin to become evident if there are no further incentive instruments after those currently being issued).
Facilities incentivised in 2024
In 2024, writes Arera, the incentive instruments allowed for the incentivisation of a decreasing amount of electricity, of about 54.4 terawatt hours in 2024 (it was about 56.4 TWh in 2023), for a total cost of EUR 8.9 billion, up from about EUR 7.1 billion in 2023, as they depend in part on wholesale electricity prices (which have been reduced compared to 2023). The total bill rises to EUR 9.3 billion if one also adds the outlays for some so-called special schemes, which are worth EUR 368 million in 2024.
The incidence of renewables
.The report also contains a snapshot of 2023 when gross electricity production in Italy amounted to 264.7 terawatt hours. Renewable sources accounted for 44% (of which wind and photovoltaic plants accounted for around 47%). In 2024, however, production from renewable sources reached an incidence of close to 52% of total production.
The gross efficient power related to plants powered by renewable sources in Italy amounted to approximately 66.8 gigawatts (GW) in 2023, corresponding to 51.3% of the total gross efficient power (amounting to 130.1 GW). Based on preliminary data currently available, in 2024 the gross efficient power related to photovoltaic plants recorded +6.8 GW, while that from wind power plants +0.7 GW.
