The Giorgia Meloni government has decided to postpone the shutdown of Italian coal power plants to 2038, thirteen years later than planned, to limit the impact of the war in the Persian Gulf. The impossibility of crossing the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian attacks on energy facilities in the region have indeed caused a significant increase in natural gas prices and fueled fears about supply security. Italy is doubly exposed to the crisis, both because the electricity generation mix consists of 40 percent gas, and because it imports a considerable amount of liquefied fuel from Qatar.
WHERE THE COAL POWER PLANTS ARE IN ITALY
In Italy, there are four coal power plants: one in Apulia, in Brindisi; one in Lazio, in Civitavecchia; two in Sardinia, in Portovesme and Fiume Santo. All, except the last one, are owned by Enel and are inactive. However, the Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said they could be restarted if a new energy crisis like that of 2022 were to occur: back then, these plants were indeed brought back into operation to offset the sharp rise in gas prices and its possible shortage.
In the Pniec, the plan containing energy and decarbonization targets, the definitive closure of coal power plants was scheduled for 2025.
HOW MUCH COAL WEIGHS IN THE ITALIAN ELECTRICITY MIX
The weight of coal in the Italian electricity generation mix is, however, decidedly low: its share is less than 2 percent, while natural gas – according to data from the International Energy Agency referring to 2024 – accounts for 43 percent, hydroelectric 20 percent, solar 13 percent, and wind 8 percent.
WHY COAL?
Coal generation is very similar to gas generation: power plants using these fossil fuels produce electricity in a stable and continuous manner, allowing constant balancing of supply and demand; however, they do so by releasing greenhouse gases, and coal emissions are higher than those of gas.
At the moment, coal’s advantage lies in its low price and especially in the fact that its trade does not pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is instead crucial for maritime transport of oil and gas.
In reality, energy production with coal in the European Union is not exactly cheap because it is affected by the cost of the ETS, the community system for trading carbon dioxide emission allowances. To summarize briefly, the ETS establishes a European-level market for buying and selling CO2 emission “permits” in which the most polluting companies must offset their emissions by purchasing allowances from the “cleaner” ones. Already today, the ETS “weighs” for 11 percent on the electricity bills paid by Italian companies.
COAL BOOMS IN ASIA
More than Italy, the countries that have truly decided to consume much more coal to protect themselves from the Middle East crisis are Asian countries. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the difficulty of accessing hydrocarbons produced in the Persian Gulf is indeed a problem especially for East Asia and specifically for China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Pakistan.
As reconstructed by the Financial Times, “coal-producing countries, such as China and India, are rushing to tap into their reserves, while other countries, from Bangladesh to South Korea, are focusing on coal power plants and drastically reducing gas use, ignoring environmental concerns related to this polluting fuel. Thailand has also restarted coal plants.”
Coal is already – and by far – the most used source for electricity production in Asia, with an average of 40-50 percent regionally. In 2024, 74 percent of India’s electricity was generated with coal, 57 percent in China, 32 percent in Japan, and 30 percent in South Korea.
