The latest news and innovations, from the integration of solar thermal and photovoltaic panels into green buildings, which become shared architectural elements, to new energy efficiency performances achieved through systematic monitoring and control of key system parameters.

Italy is the world’s third-largest market for the potential development of floating offshore wind farms; evidence of this is the fact that, despite the 10 GW of installable capacity estimated by Terna, there is demand for over 100 MW. The Blue Economy framework law has been a key step in the development of the offshore wind energy sector. This energy can be used to produce green hydrogen, a key resource for the decarbonization of the industrial and transport sectors, which effectively contributes to the fight against climate change.

Of the nearly 330 TWh of national electricity demand, geothermal energy meets less than 2% of demand. In 2024, 35% of electricity generation was covered by renewable energy sources, while geothermal energy’s contribution stood at around 5.3%. In its conclusions approved in December 2024, the European Council called for a more rapid deployment of geothermal energy, taking into account Italy’s advanced and multidisciplinary industrial and scientific expertise.
Questa fonte di energia può essere utilizzata per il riscaldamento e il raffrescamento degli edifici a costi accessibili e può garantire un approvvigionamento stabile di energia elettrica, contribuendo alla decarbonizzazione della domanda globale e rendendo le industrie più competitive e sostenibili.

To ensure the gradual phase-out of fossil fuels, the EU has adopted measures to support the deployment of renewable and low-carbon gases. The new rules promote hydrogen market penetration in carbon-intensive energy sectors (Hard To Abate systems).

The hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package, adopted in May 2024, aims to:

• create a hydrogen market and achieve 40 GWe of hydrogen capacity

  electrolysers for renewable hydrogen by 2030;

• better integrate renewable and low-carbon gases into the grid

  of the gas;

• improve consumer protection in energy contracts;
• increase security of supply and cooperation between countries

  EU.
  It will be up to each Member State to provide incentives in the form of tariff discounts and incentives, in order to facilitate the integration of their respective energy markets and systems, particularly for the emerging hydrogen market.

For the green hydrogen production plants currently in the final design phase, Sicily aims to become a top player in the Mediterranean, offering innovative, replicable solutions for replacing grey hydrogen at the national and EU levels, to ensure a fair and sustainable energy transition.

The increasingly pressing need to optimally manage energy flows from renewable sources is increasingly driving the market to seek solutions that ensure grid stability while simultaneously maximizing available energy use.

Investment in energy storage systems and related technologies has increased significantly in recent years and is considered a crucial issue by the EU. What are the prospects for the flexibility, capacity, and feasibility of advanced systems to achieve grid stability resulting from the unpredictability of renewable resources?

Nuclear energy, always at the center of controversy, is among the zero-emission energy sources and, generally, has the lowest environmental impact of all other forms of energy production. Therefore, the launch of a new dialogue on a sustainable energy future that includes this form of energy cannot be ignored. Thanks to the new vision approved by the national government, the nuclear power of the future, modular and small-scale, is already a reality. Advanced and innovative, modular, small- and medium-scale carbon-free microreactors (SMR – AMR – >Gen-IV) will be necessary to ensure the generation of hydrogen immediately for the production of “E-Fuels” and subsequently to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

Energy conversion plants are now characterized by the best use of each resource through complex architectures ranging from combined heat and power to trigeneration. In this way, the innovative criteria of the energy transition are now able to satisfy all types of consumption by different users: civil, industrial and commercial, but also hospital facilities and public administration.

To achieve the energy transition, it is essential to save energy by reducing consumption. Using less energy means:
• fewer greenhouse gas emissions;
• less pollution;

• More affordable energy for citizens;
• Reduced dependence on fossil fuel imports.
The EU has set a target of reducing energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030, at EU level, compared to consumption forecasts made in 2020.

Over a third of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the buildings sector.
The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive aims to increase the energy efficiency of EU buildings by 2030 and beyond. The ultimate goal is for all EU buildings to become carbon neutral by 2050.

To achieve these goals, the directive aims to reduce the average energy consumption of residential buildings:
• by at least 16% by 2030;
• by at least 20-22% by 2035;

Buildings should also develop more infrastructure for bicycles and electric vehicles.

The development of renewable energy sources (CERs), following the recent entry into force of the MASE Decree that encourages their establishment, combines the benefits of the incentive tariff with non-repayable grants for their development. This is a truly innovative legal development that could represent interesting opportunities, especially for small urban centers: in municipalities with fewer than five thousand inhabitants, both incentive options can be combined. In an Italy of “a thousand villages,” renewable energy sources (CERs) can therefore create local economic advantages, combat the high cost of kWh, and help prevent the depopulation and abandonment of small municipalities, which not only pose a social and economic problem but also lead to the loss of local traditions and cultures. These elements, with their diversity, constitute the true value of the Italian territory. This topic, along with other related topics—such as “Self-Consumer Groups,” “Widespread Self-Consumption,” and “Energy Configurations and Sharing”—will be discussed in a dedicated session.

The latest innovations range from the integration of photovoltaic solar modules into green buildings, which have become shared architectural elements, to new techniques for monitoring and controlling the functional parameters that determine the system’s energy performance. Thanks to digitalization, the implementation of intelligent self-consumption, and Renewable Energy Communities, energy efficiency has become a systemic aspect, enabling continuous improvement.

The latest news and innovations, from the integration of photovoltaic solar modules into green buildings, where they become shared architectural elements, to new techniques for monitoring and controlling the functional parameters that determine the system’s energy performance. Thanks to digitalization, the application of intelligent self-consumption, and Renewable Energy Communities, energy efficiency is now becoming systemic, enabling continuous performance improvement.

Not just products, but also services and remote monitoring and control systems, along with the digital transition. This includes everything related to energy sustainability: diagnostics, monitoring services, and specialized technical consultancy, based on innovative control and digitalization processes, which in the most recent projects leverage the application of artificial intelligence.