Italy to eliminate coal-fired power plants by 2025 – excluding Sardinia

• 8 months ago (2024-03-08)
• David Flin

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Italy’s Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin has announced that Italy will close all of its remaining coal-fired power stations by 2025, except for Sardinia. He said that Italy would build natural gas plants instead.

He told the Italian Parliament: “The intermediate target of abandoning coal in the electricity generation mix by December 31, 2025 … is very close. The updated National Climate and Energy Plan will certainly confirm it.”

However, the use of coal to generate power on Sardinia won’t end until 2028 at the earliest.

Italy has 6 coal-fired power plants, with 14 units in total. These are: Monfalcone, Fusina, Torrevaldaliga Nord, Brindisi Sud, Sulcis, and Fiume Santo. The last two named are on the island of Sardinia.

Italy has approved four new gas-fired plants with a combined capacity of 3400 MW, and has upgraded existing ones to develop an additional 700 MW, due for completion by 2026.

Meanwhile, Fratin said that Italy has nearly ended its dependence on Russian natural gas imports, which has been the policy goal of the Italian government since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Italy imported only 4 per cent of its total gas from Russia in 2023, while gas from Algeria grew from 28 per cent to 36 per cent over the same period.