Energy Sources and the Situation of Natural Gas in Italy

CHAPTER 1
A GENERAL VIEW ON ENERGY SOURCES
Italian energy balance For energy balance we identify the instrument with which the quantities offered and those 
demanded of energy sources are contrasted in a specific area (normally a country, but sometimes 
also aggregates or parts of a country) with reference to a specific period of time (normally a year). 
Compared to partial balances, that register the offer and demand of only one energy source, energy 
balance let get the point of interdependence relations among the individual energy sources. 
Adopting a non-restrictive criterion on the construction of energy balance, this must calculate the all 
energy used, both self-produced and bought, both coming from a stock source and  flow-source. But 
this construction gives also some problems relative to:
• Lack of reading of some quantities employed that in this way they must be estimated with 
great margins of doubt;
• Uncertain definition of the limit within we can calculate the exploitation of natural flows. 
For example the passive solar energy (partial heating of houses and greenhouses or drying of 
food farming products, etc...).
In practise energy balances made by national and international organizations are between the two 
sides even if they approach to the first one, they generally include the quantities commercialized 1
.
Italian energy balance formulated by Ministry of Industry has been published for the first time on 
1953, it is composed by out-and-out energy balance, four attachments and a summary balance, and 
it is presented both in metres and Kcal. Primary energy sources are the principal object of energy 
balance, that’s those ones present in nature before having undergone any change and they can be 
classified as follows:
• Fossil sources: oil, carbon and natural gas;
• Nuclear source: fission (uranium, thorium), fusion (deuterium, tritium);
• Renewable sources: classical ones (hydroelectric power, heat energy) and new ones (wind 
power, solar power (heat, photovoltaic), fuel from waste (CDR), biomass (firewood), bio 
fuels (bio ethanol, biogas). Primary energy sources cannot be replaced between them, 
because they have different  intrinsic characteristics that concern: the kind of energy 
deliverable, specific power, scale of plants, availability, supply costs, transformation costs, 
environmental impact and assigned risks 2
.
It’s possible to note that from the nineties to nowadays Italian energy balance has presented some 
interesting variations, in fact comparing 1992 and 2004 summary balances in Italy, there are some 
differences easily detectable. The production of solid fuels, which in 1992 amounted to 1,451 Mtoe, 
in 2004 decreased to 0,556 Mtoe, even the production of gas decreased from 14,738 Mtoe to 10,693 
Mtoe, while on the contrary oil production increased from 4,501 Mtoe to 5,445 Mtoe. Surely import 
variations are very important; suffice it to consider that in 1992 Italy imported 28,316 Mtoe of gas 
against 56,024 Mtoe in 2004 showing a very high dependence for supply from foreign countries. In 
fact, the lack of availability of energy sources and the absence of nuclear energy involve one of the 
lowest self-sufficiencies in Europe for Italy, equal to 15,8% of national requirement. The analysis of 
the trend of last fifteen years of primary energy sources demand highlights a substantial increase of 
1
Source (L. De Paoli, 1998/1999, Il bilancio e le altre forme di contabilità energetica). A
2
Source (L. De Paoli, 1998/1999, Il bilancio e le altre forme di contabilità energetica). B
3
renewable sources (+49,5%) and of natural gas (+43,3%)
3
, indicating the certain importance that 
these sources will have in the future energy scenes.
It’s important the reflection that can be supposed analysing that, in 2004, Italy, in view of an energy 
demand of 144 Mtoe in the same year offered 197,8 Mtoe, where the difference equal to 53,8 Mtoe 
was composed by consumptions and wastes of Italian energy sector. These are data that are in line 
with 1992 summary balance, where in view of a demand of 122,835 Mtoe Italy had an offer of 
168,79 Mtoe with resulting consumptions and wastes of energy system equal to 45,344 Mtoe. It’s a 
very important charge that let sense a great margin of improvement of the efficiency of Italian 
energy system.
The graph below shows the forecasts of the development of national energy balance given the 
actual energy policy. This is an estimation of the “trend” evolution at the year 2020 of Italian energy 
system, elaborated with Markal 4
 model.
In the first ten years of this scene the consumption of energy increases at an annual middle rate of 
1,2% (the same of the nineties), while in the second ten years it increases at a middle rate of 0,8%. 
As it is clear the under way trend to substitute natural gas to oil (principally in electric generation, 
while it would be desirable an increase of the consumption for auto traction) and the progressive 
convergence of the relative charges on total consumption continue, till, within the end of next ten 
years, gas becomes the first source in Italian energy system. It’s clear also that the trend scene 
doesn’t imply improvements regarding actual situation: the total dependence from fossil fuels 
remain about 85% for all the time (with a little trend to increase). Also renewable sources remain 
marginal, although this scene absorbs the increase of the threshold of duty of 0,35% per year for 
3
Source (Enea, 1999, L’energia).
4
Source (www.energoclub.it, May 2006, Osservatorio Politico).
4
%
  1995           2000          2005          2010           2015 250 200 M tep 150 100 50 Electr. Import.                  4,8               5,2                6,2               7,3               6,8 
6,3 
   Renewable en.                6,1               6,9                8,1               8,4                8,7 
8,5  
     
  Carbon           7,              7,3               6,9                7,9               7,8                7,7 
7,9
Emission Tradings from 2004 to 2006, that remain always much lower than 10% of total energy 
consumption.
It’s interesting to observe which energy sources have been employed in 2004
5
:
Energy source Mtoe National production (Mtoe)
Solid (carbon, etc…) 17,1 0,556
Gas 66,2 10,693
Oil 88,0 5,445
Renewable 16,5 14,329
Electric energy 10,0 … total 197,8 31,023
We note that the trend to the increase of national demand of natural gas continues (+3,8%), which 
hits 66,2 Mtoe (33,5% of the consumptions of primary energy) in accordance with the progressive 
substitution of fuel oil thermoelectric plants with new gas turbine plants characterized by an higher 
efficiency while, after years of relative stability, we see an increase of carbon consumptions that 
reaches 17,1 Mtoe (8,64% of consumptions of primary energy), even in the presence of a 
considerable increases of prices. Consequently, the total consumption of oil products was equal to 
88 Mtoe (44,5% of consumptions of primary energy), with a decrease of 3,1% than the previous 
year, in line with the trend recorded in the last years 6
.
Renewable sources contributed for more than 8,35% of the total demand of energy and for about 
17% of electric demand. Among renewable sources, the role of those “historical” ones is still 
predominant, in particular of hydroelectric one that gives more than 75% of electric energy from 
renewable sources. Despite a good increase of energy production has been marked in the last years, 
the energy contribute from biomass has been attested to 10% of energy demand and that from 
bio fuels results to be much lower than 1% of the demand in transportation industry. Also for wind 
and solar sector, which among renewable sources have higher chances of development, 0,22% of 
contribute to energy demand that has been marked in 2004 definitely seems to be below European 
standard.
On the whole we are still far from a real take-off of renewable sources that, despite the incentive 
processes put to use, they will hardly satisfy the 22% of gross domestic consumption of electricity 
between 2010 and 2012, as commitments undertaken in UE forecast 7
. Italy is not so rich in national 
sources and their extraction is more expensive than abroad. In fact, it’s forecast a steady decrease of 
our sources with a rhythm of depletion that will depend on world prices and technological progress. 
De facto, only the potential of renewable sources has not yet been fully exploited because of their 
high production price.
5
Source (Ministero delle Attività Produttive, 16
th November 2005, Bilancio Energetico Nazionale 2004).
6
Source (ENEA, 2005, Rapporto Energia-Ambiente 2005). A
7
Source (ENEA, 2005, Rapporto Energia-Ambiente 2005). B
5
RENEWABLE SOURCES
The energy from renewable sources, characterized by its very low environmental impact, matches 
the commitment to follow a model of sustainable development with the need of supporting energy 
demand. Even traditional multinational companies of crude oil are quickly adapting to it 
transforming themselves in “energy companies” and they sell not only crude oil but also all it needs 
to satisfy the market demand  and consumer’s needs. But, even if in the last ten years, Italy noticed 
an important increase of electric energy production from these sources, this remained on a standard 
that it can be defined as marginal. Naturally at local level, in same cases this production reaches 
even much higher values, as for example the hydroelectric sector in Latin America, where great 
water sources let reach production standards equal to 25% of the total. But in the group of 
renewable sources in perspective solar and wind energy play the most important role. In fact, these 
are the most promising sources not only on ecological side, but also in competitiveness, in potential 
applications and in new ways for their exploitation. World-wide wind sector rising rate resulted very 
strong, almost at exponential standard. In the last years the capacity of generation almost tripled 
producing a sensible decrease of costs. In Europe the cases of Germany, Spain and Denmark are 
emblematic, where wind sector is by then a very important reality. Also photovoltaic sector had a 
discrete development, even if lower that wind sector.
Regarding biomasses, despite we notice a world-wide discrete employment (biomasses produce 
14% of world energy needs), in European countries their role is less incisive. For the future, 
however, we must pay utmost attention to all the sector of renewable sources, that represent one of 
the most important resources and that from them we expect a great contribute in order to obtain the 
expected reductions of CO2 emissions, that are essential to fight efficiently the problem of climate 
changes 8
.
8
Source (Comitato di Parlamentari per l’Innovazione Tecnologica e lo sviluppo sostenibile – Onlus, 2004, Energia e
fonti rinnovabili).
6