The relevance of economic reasons for governmental choices on renewable energies in Italy

Worldwide investments for the production of electricity from renewable energy have exceeded investments in fossil fuels for power plants. Nevertheless levels of competitiveness of renawable energy are still low compared to conventional sources. As a consequence forms of public incentives are required for R&D, investment and production. In Italy energy policies have led to a substantial and progressive increase in installed capacity and gross production of renewable energy. However, we are still far from achieving the objectives set at European level of a share of 20% of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption by 2020. The objective of this study is to investigate the economic reasons that should guide the public decision maker, in a scenario where not all investments in renewable energy would have the same real impact on the Italian industrial system and on the economy of the country.