Italy Proposes Phasing Out Coal Power Plants By 2025 (reuters.com)

Italy is the next country to phase out coal. According to Reuters, the country has set its sights on phasing out coal power plants by 2025. From the report: Italy's biggest utility Enel has said it will not invest in new coal-fired power plants. The new energy strategy, still under discussion, aims to reach the goal of 27 percent of gross overall energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030, the document showed. The strategy, which should be approved by the government at the beginning of November, is also looking to speed up the introduction of vehicles powered by alternative fuels. It aims to raise the number of electric charging stations to 19,000 by 2020.

Comments

Re:Why is this necessary?

[quantaman]

If solar and wind are as cheap without subsidies as recent stories claim, why do countries need to set targets like this? If renewables are really that cheap, shouldn't the free markets phase out coal power without government regulation? Countries setting targets like this and regulating the sources of energy seems to suggest that the claims made about renewables are false. Why else would the government need to intervene?

a) Depending on circumstances they might not be as cheap, but when you factor in CO2 it's a worthwhile investment.
b) Even if it it's cheaper for new infrastructure it still probably costs more to phase out some old infrastructure.
b) Renewables are cheap enough that initiatives like this are feasible.

Re: Why is this necessary?

[ShanghaiBill]

Who said wind is cheaper? Quote please?

Wind and solar are cheaper than coal in Australia.
Wind is cheaper than coal in India.
Wind directly competes with coal on price.

... and now for an opposing view:
News Flash: Wind is not cheaper than coal.

Re:That's not happening without nuclear power

[hyades1]

Rarely have I seen a comment so stuffed with half truths, myths and outright nonsense.

https://energytransition.org/2013/02/the-german-coal-myth/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_phase-out

How can Germany have "failed on the claim to abandon coal" when German hard coal subsidies aren't scheduled to stop until 2018 and total coal generation isn't scheduled to end until 2030 at the earliest?

Please understand I'm not responding to you. I understand that you have an agenda, and renewables aren't part of it. I'm commenting here simply so people honestly interested in what's happening in the European energy sector have convenient access to information more accurate and less agenda-driven than yours.

Re:Why is this necessary?

[Rei]

Oh, and as for your first claim:

Of course, it's easier to switch over a smaller infrastructure used by fewer people.

This is wrong on many levels.

1) The basic premise itself is wrong. If you have fewer people, yes that means less demand, but it also means correspondingly less resources to make the change.

2) Iceland is a much more challenging case than Italy. Both Italy and Iceland are mountainous, but Iceland - in addition to having a worse climate - also has a far lower population density.

3) Infrastructure in Iceland isn't better than in Italy. Take Tesla, for example. Italy has five Tesla stores, 2 Tesla service centres, and 23 supercharging stations (soon to be 35) covering the whole of the country. Iceland? 0, 0 and 0. Iceland doesn't even have any kind of charging stations at all - even slow chargers - covering large chunks of the Ring Road, the main road around the country. Just a couple months ago chargers only went a third of the way around.

I'll repeat: Italy has no excuse. They're not a role model when it comes to EVs; they're being lapped at the track by everyone else and making up excuses for why it's not their fault.