By Giuseppe Fonte, Gavin Jones and Francesca Landini
ROME, May 21 (Reuters) – Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a Danish firm eager to invest in Italian offshore wind farms, is getting impatient.
Two years after the country’s 2024 law offered incentives to would-be developers to provide offshore wind capacity, the government has yet to announce a calendar for auctions it said it would hold by 2028.
The inertia reflects a reluctance to embrace the transition from fossil fuels as a complex and polarised international debate pits clean energy campaigners against some governments and companies. U.S. President Donald Trump has led the support for continued use of oil and gas.
For Italian families and firms, the pain is acute from a surge in fossil fuel prices since U.S.-Israeli airstrikes started the Iran war at the end of February.
They are particularly exposed because of the extent to which Italy relies on imported natural gas.
Michele Schiavone, Italian country manager for Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ offshore delivery arm, said Rome’s foot-dragging on offshore wind meant it could miss out on a sector fundamental to its future energy security.
“The (government’s) silence is not just preventing us going forwards, it is taking us backwards,” he said. “It’s an own-goal that is too bad to be true.”
ITALY’S GAS RELIANCE DRIVES UP ELECTRICITY COSTS
Gas, which is more expensive than renewables, accounts for almost half of Italy’s electricity production, the highest proportion in the European Union, according to 2025 data by global energy think tanks Ember and the Energy Institute.
That compares with around a fifth in Spain, 17% in Germany and 3% in France’s nuclear-dominated system.
As the bloc’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas through the Gulf, where Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused unprecedented energy supply disruption, Italy could have responded by accelerating the quest for renewable energy.
Instead it launched international searches for new gas suppliers, just as it did after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Our panic today over the energy impact of the wars in progress is partly because we haven’t pursued the right policies and investments in the past,” said Riccardo Barbieri, director general at Italy’s Treasury.
The contribution of renewable sources – mainly solar, wind and hydroelectric – to Italian power output rose by just above two percentage points to 41% between 2020 and 2024, according to Eurostat data.
