In the first half of 2024, Italy produced more electricity from renewables than from fossil sources:it had never happened

Between January and June in Italy the production of electricity from renewable sources recorded a +27.3 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

• In the first half of 2024, in Italy the production of electricity from renewable sources exceeded that from fossil sources.It had never happened before.
• The credit goes above all to hydroelectric energy, favored by abundant rainfall in the north:between January and June the plants produced 25.92 TWh.
• Meanwhile, energy production from fossil fuels fell by 19 percent compared to the same period in 2023, with a minus 77.3 percent for coal.

In the first half of 2024, in Italy there production of electricity from renewable sources has surpassed that from fossil fuels.It's the first time this has ever happened. The data is provided by Terna, the company that manages the national electricity grid.

Hydroelectric leads the wave of renewable energy in Italy

In the first half of the year, in Italy the energy production from renewable sources it even marked a +27.3 percent compared to the first half of 2023.The merit goes above all tohydroelectric energy, favored by abundant spring rainfall in northern Italy (opposite, however, the weather conditions in the south and on the islands, plagued by drought).Between January and June the hydroelectric plants produced 25.92 TWh, with a leap forward of 64.8 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, when they stopped at 15.73 TWh.

In the first half of this year, Terna continues, the national energy needs it grew by 1.1 percent compared to the same period in 2023 (plus 0.5 percent the adjusted value).There renewable capacity in operation increased by 3,691 MW (of which 3,341 MW of photovoltaic), a value that grew by 41 percent compared to that recorded in the same period of 2023.

Between January and June 2023, renewables were able to cover 34.9 percent of the energy demand:exactly one year later they reached 43.8 percent, the historical record on a six-monthly basis.Considering only the month of June, renewable energies in Italy covered 52.5 percent of electricity demand, compared to 43.8 percent in June 2023.The all-time high of hourly production from clean energy was marked on June 22, with 33.2 GW produced between 1pm and 2pm.

Electricity production from coal is collapsing

Conversely, in the first half of this year energy production from fossil sources it fell by 19 percent compared to the same period in 2023.In particular, the coal marks a vertical collapse, equal to 77.3 percent. As reiterated by the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Italy has committed to stopping the production of electricity from coal by the end of 2025, with the sole exception of Sardinia.

Also there Map of Venaria, published at the end of G7 climate, energy, environment held in April in Piedmont, it forces the world's top seven economies to abandon coal energy production.But it is a rather "soft" objective, first of all because it only refers to central unabated, that is, without systems capture and storage of CO2.Secondly, because the expiration it is set at "the first half of the 1930s of this century or in a time frame useful for limiting the increase in global average temperature to within 1.5 degrees Celsius", thus leaving a certain margin of discretion.