Italy on Track to Phase out Coal for Power Generation by 2025

By Charles Kennedy - Mar 06, 2024

Italy will halt the use of coal to generate electricity by 2025, opting instead to increase the use of gas-fired power plants, according to the Italian Energy Ministry. 

"The intermediate target of abandoning coal in the electricity generation mix as of Dec. 31, 2025 ... is very close. The updated (National Climate and Energy) Plan will certainly confirm it," Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told parliament on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters. 

The island of Sardinia will be excluded from the nationwide plan, with the target date to phase out coal for electricity generation there between 2026 and 2028. 

While the European Union is hoping to phase out fossil fuels, it has recently embraced natural gas as a necessary “bridge” fuel in the energy transition. 

Last summer, EU  lawmakers voted to include natural gas and nuclear energy on the list of sustainable activities in line with its fight against climate change and its goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050.  

In early February, Germany earmarked $16 billion for the construction of four natural gas power plants to complement a renewable energy expansion push. And Austria has recently made its largest natural gas discovery in four decades—enough to increase its domestic production by 50%.

Italy has given the go-ahead for four new gas-fired plants over the past couple of years, which will be able to produce around 3,400 megawatts of power, with another 700 MW expected to be gained by upgrading existing power plants by 2026, Reuters reported. 

Italy’s Energy Ministry told parliament on Wednesday that the country managed to almost completely phase out Russian gas, which represented only 4% of Italy’s total gas imports last year. That Russian gas was replaced primarily by Algerian gas and imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar and the U.S. 

Italy’s winter gas storage is now 64% full, though this is expected to drop to around 45% by the end of this month. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

China coal group says peak demand imminent as clean power grows

Bloomberg News | March 8, 2024 |

Coal mining. (Reference image from RawPixel).

China is rapidly approaching peak coal consumption, but the fossil fuel’s role in helping to address energy security concerns means its use will plateau for some time after that, according to the nation’s top industry association.


Coal is being displaced in the power sector thanks to a huge surge in wind and solar additions last year, while the real estate crisis is helping to cool demand from heavy industry, said Zhang Hong, deputy secretary-general of the China National Coal Association. At the same time, the growth of renewables means coal is in demand to help balance out intermittent generation.

A sharp drop in consumption, therefore, will not come swiftly.

“Coal demand is reaching a plateau period, but its fundamental role in supporting China’s energy supply safety is hard to change in the short-term,” Zhang said at the China Coal Import International Summit in Xiamen, southeastern China. “The role of coal as primary energy and a fallback for ensuring energy security remains unchanged, even when it is close to reaching a plateau.”

China mines and burns more than half the world’s coal, making its power sector the single biggest contributor to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. A series of power shortages in recent years led the government to boost mining to a record and go on a spree building new coal power plants, even as it invests more than any other country in clean energy.

Coal consumption rose 5.6% last year, a faster increase than the prior year, as the country left Covid-19 restrictions behind at a time when hydropower generation was hit by an historic drought. Still, the International Energy Agency forecasts coal consumption in China will fall in 2024 and plateau through the next two years. President Xi Jinping has promised that the country’s use of the fuel will begin to decline from 2026.

The debate over fuel’s trajectory continues, though. At the same conference, Wu Wenbin, head of coal management at Guangdong Energy Group, said he expects a 4% increase in consumption this year. Fenwei Digital Information Technology Co., the conference organizer and a coal industry research firm, forecasts a 2% rise this year for power-station coal.