A ring to complete the national electricity system. Code name: Tyrrhenian link. A submarine cable that connects Campania, Sicily and Sardinia. Which indirectly favors the closure of the polluting coal plants of the Sardinian island. Constituting an additional highway for powering photovoltaic projects. Which serves to “close” the distribution network by linking it to Corsica and Lazio. And then the new electrical interconnections to the international grid. The projects with Switzerland, with the dismantling of the existing lines, which would produce a reorganization in Valtellina and in Val Chiavenna. And the one with Greece, giving back to Italy the role of electricity hub in the Mediterranean which would be completed with a connection project with Tunisia. And then two new submarine cables: one will connect the Giglio with Tuscany, the other will connect Favignana with Sicily. To these is added the power line between Elba and the mainland. It is the largest investment plan ever implemented by Terna, the company controlled by the public shareholder Cdp Reti with 29.85% of the capital.
Thirty-one projects. Over 18 billion in investments over the next 10 years, an increase of 25% compared to the previous plan, to enable the energy transition. An ambitious strategy, imagined with a self-sufficient financial capacity which, however, does not exclude that some projects can take advantage of EU resources with Recovery funds. We will see. The CEO of Terna, Stefano Donnarumma, says that every billion invested in the electricity infrastructure determines a multiple of two to three times for the national GDP. With positive social repercussions on the employment side. It is clear that the energy transition “is not a gala dinner”, in the words of the competent minister Roberto Cingolani. Such as accumulator technologies which are still prohibitively expensive. But it is indubitable that electrification is an unstoppable trend that also fuels mobility. It is also preparatory to the construction of a battery supply chain for which a Stellantis gigafactory is hypothesized in our country if the volumes of cars produced were to justify it. Donnarumma intends to strengthen the ridges from north to south avoiding bottling. By fueling the consumption of the manufacturing industry. “In the next few years, every year we have to install 8 gigawatts of plants, ten times more than we do now,” Cingolani sets the bar.