Italy energy markets long-term outlook 2019

In Italy, the near-term emphasis is to phase out coal thermal plants and provide incentives for coal-to-gas switching in the power sector. Renewables will also play a key role in supporting the energy transition goals of the government to cleaner capacity growth. Although gas is expected to remain the single largest source of power supply in Italy, the role of renewables will continue to expand and reduced output from coal will see demand met from indigenous power production and imports. Italy is Europe's largest importer of power, and cross border capacity is due to expand in the coming years - including an increase in import capacity from 3.2 GW to 4.5 GW with France by the end of 2019.