PNIEC, CIB hearing in the Chamber. Gattoni: “We need to identify coherent trajectories for biogas and biomethane and long-term support policies to guide future investments”.

The CIB-Consorzio Italiano Biogas Hearing was held today at the Environment and Productive Activities Committees of the Chamber of Deputies, where some critical points and proposals for improvement of the document updating the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) were highlighted.

The current PNIEC was judged to be better than the 2019 forecasts, but still cautious with respect to our country’s production potential. In particular, the targets for biogas production in cogeneration, which are mainly related to the existing share of plants that will not be able to convert to biomethane, should be better defined. The production of electrical and thermal energy from biogas is in fact strategic for the greening of the programmability of the electricity grid and could also be included in the development of Renewable Energy Communities. According to the data presented by the CIB, in line with the path started with the PNRR and following the aims expressed by the REPowerEu, the sector has a development potential of agricultural biomethane of 6.5 billion Smc by 2030, to which is added a potential for the continuation of electricity production from biogas.

‘It is crucial that our country adopts an ambitious approach, recognising in this the crucial role of biogas and biomethane for energy security and the ecological transition, because in this way we will be able to direct investments in our sector,’ said Piero Gattoni, President of the CIB. “With this in mind, therefore, we need to intervene within the Plan to increase the potential in the electricity sector, also considering the support of all the plants that will remain operational with an estimated capacity of around 500 MW, capable of providing a concrete response to renewable energy demand. In this sense, we believe that ARERA’s decision on minimum guaranteed prices for biogas plants can no longer be postponed, as we have also stressed to Minister Pichetto Fratin,” commented President Gattoni, adding that: ‘It is also necessary to speed up the issuing of all the measures envisaged in the Plan to allow a rapid conversion of biogas plants to biomethane on schedule; above all, mechanisms need to be introduced to favour the reduction of grid connection costs.’

During the hearing, attention was drawn to the growing importance of biomethane at European level. In this regard, President Gattoni concluded: ‘Although biomethane is recognised by many member states as a strategic driver for the energy transition, few foresee a need for investment in agriculture, and Italy somehow has a chance to stand out in this respect. We can only hope for a path of improvement of the PNIEC in the coming months that separate us from the final writing on 30 June.”