Strategic renewable supply chains, national potential, and prospects for technology and component manufacturing in Italy

Last June, Regulation (EU) 2024/1735 of the European Parliament and Council, so called the “Net Zero Industry Act,” came into force, aimed at strengthening European manufacturing of the components and technologies it identified as key to the energy transition, with the goal of developing production facilities on European soil and thus being more competitive and less dependent on production abroad. These include solar PV and thermal, onshore and offshore wind turbines, electrolyzers and fuel cells, batteries, heat pumps and geothermal energy, power grid technologies, carbon capture and storage systems, sustainable biogas and biomethane, among others. The goals and implementation of the regulation represent an opportunity for Italy's productive industrial sector.

What tools can the country deploy to support increased production of strategic technologies? What are the bottlenecks and difficulties that need to be overcome, and how can the skills that already exist in Italy be exploited?