ITALY AS EUROPEAN ELECTRICITY HUB

Italy holds a strategic position in Europe. This is clear from its history: since ancient times, the country has been an crossroads for commerce and trade across the Mediterranean.

Today it can resume this role, but for the transport of electricity.

These are the thoughts of Luigi Ferraris, Terna CEO, speaking of the role that Italy could take on in electricity transmission at an international level, in an interview with the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

One proposal is for a gigantic undersea connection worth € 600 million between Tunisia andItaly, to be created by 2027-28. This would allow transportation of solar energy produced in the Sahara desert to the European continent. This is a very complex infrastructural project, and there are still many technical issues to be dealt with. In fact, electricity can only be transported over such long distances using various stages, with sites equipped with electrical storage systems capable of storing the electricity in intermediate steps, avoiding losses during transport.

Future development projects plan strengthening of European cross-border connections with Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Montenegro, with greater capacities than before.

However, many challenges still remain within Italy. One such crucial aspect is the transport of electricity from solar and wind energy plants in the South to industry in the North. How can we deal with such issues? A preferred choice amongst Terna's proposals is construction of temporary storage structures for days when there is too much or too little renewable energy available (wind and solar), and pumped-storage plants that can pump water up the mountains during periods of low electricity demand and reuse the generation flow, in mountain areas rich in bodies of water and numerous unused reservoirs.

The energy transition is under way, but power stations, particularly those running on gas, remain the most important factor in this transition period, capable of supporting non-programmable management of renewables and allowing a margin of security for electricity supplies.

Sustainable development of future grids will use undersea and underground cables, with increasingly innovative technological solutions.