Due to the crisis, Italy keeps the door open to coal until 2038
Environment — di Simone Santi
Due to the crisis, Italy keeps the door open to coal until 2038: the end of the phase out is scheduled for 2038
Due to the crisis, Italy keeps the door open to coal until 2038
Due to the crisis, Italy keeps the door open to coal until 2038: the end of the phase out is scheduled for 2038
The winds of war are not only driving up gas and oil prices, but are also carrying the scent of coal back into the air — something we thought was gone for good. With an addition to the so-called Decreto Bollette, which had been passed by the government a couple of weeks ago, Parliament has pushed back the phase out — the gradual elimination of coal down to zero — by a full thirteen years, moving the deadline to 2038. The reason? Precisely to guarantee energy sufficiency at all costs, given the gas and oil crises stemming from the ongoing conflict between the Middle East and the Gulf, and perhaps to bring down energy bills.
The Chamber approves the confidence vote on the bill containing urgent measures to reduce the cost of electricity and gas for households and businesses.
#DLBollette
#DLBollette
The end of coal had already been scheduled for 2025
Until now, the end of the coal phase out had been set for 31 December 2025: meaning that in practice the moment to shut down the last 4 remaining power plants had already slipped, at least by a few months. But the end of 2025 was the official date stated in the Piano nazionale integrato per l'Energia e il Clima (Pniec), the main instrument for planning Italian energy policy towards net-zero emissions — that is, climate neutrality — which had been submitted by the government just a year and a half ago, in mid-2024. The document read (and still reads):
Italy will implement the policies and measures necessary to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets agreed at international and European level. For the sectors covered by the EU-ETS emissions trading system — first and foremost thermoelectric power and energy-intensive industry — contributions will come from the phase out of coal, scheduled by 2025, as mentioned within the limits and provided that replacement plants and the necessary infrastructure are built in time, as well as a significant acceleration of renewables and energy efficiency in production processes.
Despite this, as of March 2026, prior to the phase out being pushed back, Italy still has 4 potentially operational coal-fired power plants: two are in Sardinia (Portovesme/Grazia Deledda, operated by Enel, and Fiume Santo, operated by EP Produzione), one in Lazio (Torrevaldaliga Nord, operated by Enel, in Civitavecchia) and one in Puglia (Federico II in Brindisi, operated by Enel).
How many power plants are still operating in Italy?
🔴 The approval of a Lega amendment to the Decreto Bollette has pushed back the closure of coal-fired power plants in Italy to 2038. The measure allows, in the event of an emergency, the use of coal for a further 13 years.
The two Sardinian plants are the real reason why the phase out by 2025 had not officially been achieved: due to the relative energy isolation that Sardinia suffers from, the shutdown had already been postponed by the government, which in a decree dated 10 September 2025 entitled "Individuazione delle opere e delle infrastrutture necessarie al phase‑out dell'utilizzo del carbone in Sardegna e alla decarbonizzazione dei settori industriali dell'isola" had proposed 2028 as the date for the island, and the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin had also told Parliament that "the target of abandoning coal from 31 December 2025 is confirmed for the entire national territory, with the exception of Sardinia".
The plants in Lazio and Puglia, on the other hand, were supposed to be switched off or decommissioned by the end of 2025, but have been left inactive (that is, not running at full capacity, but operational whenever the need arises) as a precautionary measure: evidently someone had "seen it coming". The four power plants vary considerably in size and capacity:
- Torrevaldaliga Nord (Civitavecchia, Lazio): Enel, capacity of approximately 1,980 MW.
- Portovesme/Grazia Deledda (Sardinia): Enel, 480 MW.
- Fiume Santo (near Porto Torres, Sardinia): EP Produzione, 600–640 MW.
- Federico II (Brindisi, Puglia): Enel, 2,640 MW total (partly still active).
In any case, these plants currently barely cover 1 per cent of Italy's energy needs.
Will coal bring down energy bills?
Given that the postponement of the phase out comes within a decree designed to reduce the burden of energy bills on Italians' wallets, it is reasonable to ask whether this initiative could actually have an impact on that front. But is it the case? According to Mariagrazia Midulla, Head of Climate and Energy at WWF Italia, the answer is no, and here is how she explains it to LifeGate: "Coal is the worst fossil fuel, with high emissions of substances that are very harmful to health and the environment. This means that the ETS system — the European greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme — penalises it in terms of costs: today coal costs 70–80 euros per tonne, so keeping a power plant alive does not become economically viable." By a rough calculation, "bearing such a cost only makes sense if gas were to exceed 70 euros per megawatt-hour." At that point, however, Midulla continues, "what we should be doing is giving a very strong push to renewables", not to coal: according to Elettricità Futura, the association representing 70 per cent of the Italian electricity market, for example it would be enough to install an additional 60 GW of renewables — wind and solar combined — over just three years, at a rate of 20 GW per year, to save up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas and considerably reduce energy bills.
For weeks Italian ministers have been travelling the world in search of gas suppliers. Yet there is a zero-kilometre, more sustainable solution: 60 GW of clean energy ready to be activated. But Cingolani is putting the brakes on.
#Report now on air on #Rai3 👉 bit.ly/RAI3diretta
#Report now on air on #Rai3 👉 bit.ly/RAI3diretta
There is also the question of energy independence: Italy has no coal deposits, except for the Sulcis Iglesiente basin in Sardinia, which was active until 2015. Ninety per cent of the coal we burn arrives by sea from the United States, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Colombia, Canada, China, Russia and Venezuela. And it is precisely on Russia that Midulla focuses: "The new coal would be imported mainly from there, because it is impossible to think of Australia, given all the distance, the cargo to be loaded, the costs…". In other words: "At the very moment when we signed up to sanctions against Russia, we are doing something that forces us to source coal from Russia."