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Biogas in Italy

General
The European Directive 2001/77/EC (27 September 2001) demands Italy to aim for a RES-E share of 25% of gross electricity consumption by 2010. No  target exists for renewable heat in Italy. For biofuels, Italy’s Decree 128/2005 set a reference value of 1% by 2005, which is lower than the 2% reference value in the EU Directive. Main support mechanism for renewable electricity in Italy is the obligation on electricity generators to produce a certain amount of RES-E, based on Tradable Green Certificates. In 2006, the target percentage was 3.05%. In case of non-compliance, sanctions are foreseen, but enforcement in practice is considered difficult because of ambiguities in the legislation. Regional and local governments have introduced some measures to promote RES. These have taken the form of incentives for solar thermal heating and compulsory installation of solar panels in new or renovated buildings. On January the 1st of 2008, the law no. 244/2007, also known as the 2008 Budget Law (Budget Law), came into force. The Budget Law introduces many important changes affecting the renewables sector.

According to the Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources the target for the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy in the year 2020 for Italy is 17% (in the year 2005 the share was 5.2%). The Directive has a mandatory 10 % target for transport to be achieved by all Member States, which refers to renewable sources as a whole, not biofuels alone.

Renewable energy projections according to the National Renewable Energy Action Plan for Italy

The National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) for Italy was submitted in August 2010. The target according to Annex I of Directive 2009/28/EC is 17% for the year 2020 and the projected NREAP share in that year exactly matches the target.  According to the projection, the most important contribution in the year 2020 is expected from biomass (renewable heating and cooling) (5670 ktoe, 25% of all renewable energy). Second important contribution is expected from hydropower (42.0 TWh or 3611 ktoe, 16% of all renewable energy). The third largest contribution is from renewable energy from heat pumps (2900 ktoe, 13% of all renewable energy). Wind power contributes with 12.7 GW (20.0 TWh) in the year 2020 (onshore wind 12.0 GW and 18.0 TWh, offshore wind 0.7 GW and 2.0 TWh). For solar photovoltaic the 2020 contribution is projected to be 8.0 GW (9.7 TWh). For solar thermal the 2020 contribution is projected to be 1586 ktoe. The two most important biofuels are projected to contribute 1880 ktoe (biodiesel) and 600 ktoe (bioethanol / bio-ETBE) by 2020. The renewable electricity production from solid biomass amounts to 7.9 TWh (679 ktoe) and for biogas it is expected to be 6.0 TWh (518 ktoe). The consumption of renewable heat is expected to amount to 5254 ktoe for solid biomass and 266 ktoe for biogas.

Renewable heat and electricity: biogas
According to the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) for Italy the contribution of electricity from biogas amounts to 2129 GWh (453 MW) in the year 2010 and 6020 GWh (1200 MW) in the year 2020. In energy terms, this represents an average annual growth of 11% per year (10% per year in capacity terms). Renewable heat from biogas is projected to amount to 26 ktoe in the year 2010 and 266 ktoe in the year 2020 (representing an average annual growth of 26% per year).

Italian legislation already allows access rights to the gas system as long as the technical conditions for access and interconnection are met. It will be a matter of integrating the regulations in force to regulate and financially support the feeding-in of suitably treated biogas into the methane network, where this is technically possible, or, in the event of high volumes of biogas, supporting the creation of networks to transport biogas to the natural gas network. The required measures could be expanded starting from 2010, with a horizon to 2020.

Future programme changes expected
No information on future policy.

Sources
Italy renewable energy fact sheet: http://www.energy.eu/renewables/factsheets/2008_res_sheet_italy_en.pdf, January 2008

Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform_en.htm

The National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) are all published on the Transparency Platform on Renewable Energy: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/action_plan_en.htm (sourced July - December 2010)

Renewable Energy Projections as Published in the National Renewable Energy Action Plans of the European Member States, http://www.ecn.nl/nreap (sourced December 2010)

Interactive EurObserv’ER Database
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Last update: December 2010



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