Power companies forced to respond to rapidly growing consumer trend: 'More and more attractive'
Renewable energy sources are growing at a rapid pace around the world, prompting power grid operators, such as Italy's Terna, to invest in necessary infrastructure upgrades.
According to a recent Reuters report, Terna announced a €23 billion ($26 billion) investment over the next 10 years to support the country's electricity network.
"Investing in planning, modernizing and digitizing electricity grids will be essential to cope with the growing demand for energy and the integration of renewable sources," said Chief Executive Giuseppina Di Foggia, per the article.
She added that the goal was to "ensure that the country has a reliable, resilient and sustainable system."
Around 80% of the world's energy is still produced using dirty fuels like oil, gas, and coal, but renewable sources are making headway.
Ember electricity and data analyst Euan Graham told Reuters that in 2024, a record 32% of global electricity was powered by renewables. At the same time, electricity demand grew by 4% due to factors such as data center expansion and increased cooling needs amid rising global temperatures.
The combination of growth in sources like wind, hydro, and solar has helped the world improve upon the previous year's record of 30% for renewable-based energy generation.
Terna predicts that this new investment will increase the energy-exchange capacity between markets from 16 gigawatts to 39 gigawatts, resolving congestion issues and further securing and stabilizing the power grid.
Grid modernization is occurring around the world, helping to keep up with the influx of these greener energy sources, as well as increased demand. This will help reduce energy costs for consumers and decrease planet-warming pollution at the same time.
The Department of Energy announced that it would tackle Puerto Rico's dirty fuel problem by building out more sustainable sources to power the region. Several other U.S. systems are upgrading their power grid to accommodate both utility-scale additions and increased homeowner use of solar panels and battery storage systems.
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Terna added that its investments would help support the Italian government's goals to increase both solar and wind capacity by 65 gigawatts by 2030 and 94 gigawatts by 2034.
"23 billion (euros of investments) is an important thing, because clearly this is the backbone of the national energy (system)," said Italy's Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin in the report.
"Countries are thinking about their security and energy security more than ever before and I think that means homegrown renewable power like wind and solar becomes more and more attractive," said Graham in a separate report.
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