The new course of coal-fired power plants, between parks, energy and technology hubs

At the end of 2017 the last unit in Genoa was closed and in 2019 the Bastardo power plant in Umbria. In 2020 a unit in Brindisi Sud and at the end of 2021 Fusina. In 2024, the Monfalcone power plant also stopped producing energy from coal.

A park in the old lignite mine with an adjoining power station, or even a sustainable tourism hub in place of the old chimney is the Santa Barbara site at Carviglia in Tuscany. The new life of the mine, the largest open-cast mining area in Italy, is made up of tourism and the environment. Where open-cast lignite extraction took place, there are now environmental paths and forestry facilities, not forgetting a space for co-working or a logistics base.

There is also a stop to coal at the former Enel Tor di Sale power plant in Piombino, which went into service in 1977 and was called into production for the last time in 2012, only to be given the go-ahead for decommissioning by the Ministry of Economic Development in 2015. Demolition activities began in November 2021 in the plant's perimeter. In October 2024, the demolition of the two large, almost 200-metre-high chimneys (195 metres each), soaring above the gulf of the Tuscan city. The demolition paves the way for a redevelopment project that aims to transform a disused industrial site into 'an innovative centre for sustainable tourism, with numerous opportunities and facilities dedicated to physical activity, recreation and boating'.

In the panorama of 'energy factories' there is also the story of the Alessandro Volta power plant in Montalto di Castro. Originally intended to house a nuclear plant that was never completed, it then saw the development of oil and gas power plants, while today it is at the centre of a development project based on the needs of the electricity system and the opportunities created by the energy transition.

It is a future full of proposals that will affect the former coal-fired power plant in the port of Brindisi. Mimit received 50 expressions of interest. The projects concern key sectors such as energy from renewable sources, logistics, transport, ICT-datacentres, aeronautics, agribusiness, tourism, circular economy, shipbuilding and shipbuilding.

For the Civitavecchia power plant, the procedure for expressions of interest has been launched with the aim of defining an overall plan for the entire area, 'with strategic investments capable of ensuring reconversion and long-term economic and social development, to be formalised through a programme agreement'.

Two power plants remain active for the time being: the Sulcis power plant (0.5 GW), whose phase-out planned by 2027 is subject to the realisation of the conditions to guarantee the island's energy security (construction of the Thyrrenian Link); and the Fiume Santo power plant, in the province of Sassari, which currently houses two coal-fired groups with a total net capacity of about 600 MW. With 180 direct employees and about 200 indirect employees, the site covered 19% of electricity sales on the Day-Ahead Market in Sardinia in 2024, amounting to about 2.2 TWh. It is one of the most important production plants in Sardinia and an essential stronghold for the security and stability of the national electricity system. The phase-out from coal for Sardinia is planned to take place in successive stages, to be completed by the end of 2028-beginning of 2029. For the Fiume Santo plant, given its geographical location in the Sardinian power system, the end date for coal-fired operations is precisely 2028 - early 2029, depending on the commissioning of the Tyrrhenian Link, new renewable energy capacity and storage facilities.