Because you need a gas roof – Corriere.it

It is building before our eyes The new global energy system. according to foreign affairsthe most authoritative US geopolitical magazine, would have much more weight in that order Security issuetogether with the goal of sustainability. We will see a strong return to the role of the state in the energy sector, to an extent unknown recently, and public intervention on a large scale will take us back to the 1970s.

Europe suffered, with the war in Ukraine September 11It will be a laboratory for this new experiment. Reducing carbon emissions will remain a priority goal — say Harvard researchers Megan O’Sullivan and Jason Bordoff of Columbia University — but security of supply will be just as important. this means Revenge of pragmatism: The transition to renewable sources can only be gradual, and their (increasing) use will need to be accompanied for a long time by fossil fuels and natural gas in the foreground.

to me The Wall Street Journal The war is only the latest shock, and a surprising reminder of reality, but this energy crisis started earlier: at least since last summer. The business newspaper sees a world reorganized around three blocks: United State and their Western allies who use their purchasing power as a political weapon. China and other emerging countries such as India, Turkey and Vietnam who continue their business with Russia; Saudi Arabia and other producers in the Middle East which remain neutral and seek to gain market share.

The end of the free energy marketThis sector, vital to the rest of the economy, will be deeply marked by geopolitical barriers. In this context it fits Eni CEO’s trip to the United States, Claudio Descalzi
. The messages he sends are not reassuring in the short term. The coming winter will not be easy for Italy, Price tensions will be very severe, hurting families and industry, if Draghi’s proposal for a gas price ceiling is not passed to Brussels.. Unfortunately, opposition to this idea remains strong, with other European players making money from a price system riddled with distortions.

In the medium term, prospects are improving, Minister Singolani’s goal of completely replacing Russian gas within two and a half years is realistic. It helps us that Eni has gas reserves in many countries including Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Ghana, Congo, Indonesia. Therefore, he should not go to buy other people’s gas, and he has to negotiate permits to take it to Italy. Looking to the future, Eni CEO profiles A better future not only for Italy or for the West but potentially for all of humanity. The reason for his visit to the US is actually an inspection at a nuclear fusion pilot plant: the Commonwealth Fusion System (Cfs), a project set up by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the support of the US federal government, to which Eni is the largest private contributor. The prototype will be commissioned in 2025, and the industrial plant will follow 2030, and starting that year, Descalzi expects nuclear fusion to have a significant spread. At least starting with the US and UK, the two countries are at the forefront of this field. The Washington Congress believes in this and wants to allocate significant funds for the merger. He points out that fusion is the opposite of fission, recalling that this new technology It does not generate any radioactivity, nor does it produce waste.

It has low costs, used as raw material “Heavy” water, that is, not distilled: Until the sea. And you consume it in small quantities, from a bottle that can generate 250 megawatts per year. The initial investment is not huge, a billion dollars for a prototype, and if we go towards many replicas, costs will come down again. Nuclear fusion or clean atom, a dream pursued by science since the fifties of the last century. The CEO of Eni thinks the prospects for success are encouraging this time, he hears close turn. He considers that the benefits to the global system are enormous: the world will no longer be divided between those who have and those who do not have access to scarce resources, be they oil, gas, or minerals for electric car batteries. Everyone has heavy water. The plants will be small. Low-cost electricity will become accessible to the poorest regions of Africa, where electricity remains a luxury for hundreds of millions of people. We will have small and widespread power plants, within the reach of those who hitherto been dependent on the raw materials of others.

The horizon of 2030 may seem very distant to us as we grapple with the Ukrainian tragedy hour by hour, but if we do not want to freeze in the winter of 2030, today we must start preparing. If the United States and the United Kingdom start building nuclear fusion power plants, will the resistance of the Italians, Germans and Japanese fall? Descalzi is convinced that if the merger delivers on its promises, and if it succeeds, all countries will want to have it, low costs with no radioactivity would be an irresistible argument.

The CEO of the Italian multinational indicated that the paradigm shift was confirmed by the inquiries of the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affairs, in the position of its American shareholders. Even at the beginning of 2021, they just wanted to talk about sustainability and renewable energy sources. Already last summer – when the energy shock began, months before the Russian attack on Ukraine – everyone suddenly began to worry about the scarcity of fossil energy supplies. Covid was waning, the global recovery was going strong (with China up front, then), and the king was barefoot: Scenarios of a very rapid transition to all forms of renewable energy were so vividly delusional, that China, India, India and the United States were disingenuous. Others have even relied on coal in order to avoid economic paralysis. At night, in winter, and on many other occasions where the sun and wind do not contribute, the use of fossil fuels remains indispensable. Not to mention all its derivatives such as agricultural fertilizers. But Two factors have led to a decline in investments in traditional energy infrastructures in recent years: price volatility, and the transformation of the environment into an ideology, or even a religious creed..

Today, a large part of the traditional energy industry is unable to rapidly increase supply, as a result of the lack of investment in the past years. Joe Biden forced a triple somersault with a twist. I’m going to Saudi Arabia to say the opposite of what his special climate envoy John Kerry said until yesterday: The world needs OPEC to pump more oil and gas, not less. The same Biden decided to suspend duties on photovoltaic panels imported from Asia. Patience If the American plate industry has been devastated by unfair competition from the Chinese, today’s production capacity is all in the East; Americans who want to install panels on their roofs and industries who want large solar power plants, either buy Asia or find almost none.