Official and real data on biomass energy use in Italy in 2010 and its role in the achievement of the 2020 RES supply target

Journal title ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Author/s Giuseppe Tomassetti
Publishing Year 2011 Issue 2010/3
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 45-60 File size 722 KB
DOI 10.3280/EFE2010-003003
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Italy is committed to supply about 20 Mtoe from renewable energy sources (RES) by 2020. The attention so far has been focused on RES that are included in the national energy balance (NEB) whereas other RES have been neglected because they are not included in the official statistics. For example, according to the Italian NEB in 2010 the RES supplied 10.7 Mtoe, of which about 4 Mtoe of hydroelectricity . Consequently Italy seems far away from achieving its target. This gap gave rise to very substantial incentives allotted to some RES production, even if they are quite inefficient for both the modesty of the results and the limited impact on domestic manufacturers. Several field investigations indicate a significant amount of biomass consumption not accounted for in Italy. A conservative estimate of the biomass used in the final consumption is at least 5 Mtoe, bringing the total amount of RES contribution to 16.78 Mtoe in 2010. France and Germany have already formalized this recognition, and added 7-8 Mtoe to their historical energy consumption data. These considerations indicate that on one hand Italy urgently needs to improve its system of energy statistics and on the other hand that it is time to review the incentive structure without an obligation to seek any contribution without attention to costs.

Keywords: Biomass, energy staristics, Italy

Jel codes: Q23, Q16, Q40

Giuseppe Tomassetti, Dati ufficiali, ufficiosi, prevedibili sulle biomasse ad uso energetico in Italia a fine 2010 e sulla copertura degli impegni al 2020 in "ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT" 3/2010, pp 45-60, DOI: 10.3280/EFE2010-003003