Electrification will be increasingly incisive. In his speech on 20 October at the presentation of “GreenItaly 2021”, the annual report by Symbola and Unioncamere on the impact of the green economy on Italy’s markets and entrepreneurial fabric, Enel’s CEO Francesco Starace stressed that we are living in the decade of electrification, which is “more pervasive, incisive and expanding than one might think today.” After all, as the CEO pointed out, economies worldwide are proving it is “technologically and economically convenient.” And “Italy is perfectly in line with what is happening.”
Outlining this scenario, Francesco Starace recalled that the decade that has just ended can be “easily described as the ‘decade of renewables’, which today are the real backbone of future electricity generation”: indeed, renewables have created “paradigms of competitiveness which could not be foreseen, and which are at the heart of investments in electricity generation today.” Thus, Enel’s CEO explained that today’s renewable electricity generation “will also be renewable in the decade between 2021 and 2030, when electrification will increasingly emerge as a growing phenomenon.”
“This is the decade of electrification: more pervasive, incisive and expanding. Today, we can already see it in economies worldwide, as it is technologically and economically convenient”
Francesco Starace, Enel CEO
The conditions are right: while global energy demand is increasing, the growth of electricity “is continuing at twice the rate of the overall growth in demand.” As Francesco Starace remarked, if the whole world is being electrified, this is “for technological reasons of convenience”: it is a crucial trend in the world economy and has “completely positive” implications for Italy.
Electrification implies “greater granularity, smaller size investments, greater fragmentation and digitalization”: in this perspective, Enel’s CEO spoke about the importance of industrial policies, “as it’s not true that technology can do everything.” There are several positive examples: “For instance, Italy is very strong in terms of circular economy. Italian industrial policies on circular economy have been virtuous, have entailed winning choices for companies, and have led to a form of excellence.”
Enel editorial staff