Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
Energy: ENEA in EU project for a just energy transition
Analysing the technological and socio-economic challenges regions with high carbon dioxide emissions face on the way to energy transition was the focus of the European project ENTRANCES[1], which comprised 12 EU countries and 14 partners, including ENEA and Knowledge and Innovation (K&I) for Italy and the University of La Coruña (Spain) as coordinator.
Concerning Italy, two cases were examined: the decommissioning of two large coal-fired power plants in the province of Brindisi (analysis conducted by ENEA) and the conversion of former mining sites in the Sulcis-Iglesiente area in Sardinia (K&I analysis).
“The general objective of ENTRANCES was to gain further knowledge on the social aspects of the energy transition in coal and carbon-intensive regions and formulate recommendations to manage this transition,” explained Nadia Cerone, researcher at the Laboratory of Thermochemical Processes for Valorisation of Biomass, Residues and Waste and project coordinator for ENEA.
“We conducted surveys in Brindisi, where over 30 years ago a coal-fired power plant and chemical plants were built to support the development of Southern Italy,” he said. “The economic growth of the territory has gone hand in hand with a decline in agriculture and tourism and a consequent rise of tensions, due to a lack of involvement of the local territory in strategic decision-making processes for its own development,” he concludes.
The closure of the Brindisi Est power plant at the end of 2012 and the gradual phase out of the Brindisi South power plant, expected by 2025, had a negative impact on the workers of the plant and the activities related, as well as on port activities.
The socio-economic analyses on data from official sources (ISTAT and EUROSTAT) and field activities (ad hoc investigations, focus groups, in-depth interviews), showed that the lack of new job opportunities has been a driver of migration by young people, leading to a progressive aging process with relative decrease in the population (from 2001 to 2020 the population of the province of Brindisi decreased by 19 thousand units), with repercussions on the entire socio-economic fabric (in Brindisi GDP per capita has grown less than the national one and at the EU28 level).
The socio-cultural configuration of the region has also changed and the Brindisi area has experienced tensions, conflicts and impasses due to a lack of a clear alternative to industrial development.
The data collected through specific analyses and appropriately processed have made it possible to draw guidelines and recommendations to support the energy transition, identifying and enhancing the opportunities for socio-economic recovery in coal and carbon-intensive territories. Furthermore, "the activities conducted as part of the ENTRANCES project allowed ENEA to acquire a reference role at national level, in supporting the pursuit of a fair and just transition in areas that have experienced an industrial exploitation no longer compatible with sustainability objectives", concluded Giulia Monteleone, head of the ENEA Energy Production, Storage and Use Division.
