(Finance) – “Ports have always been important hubs, from an economic and energy point of view. Over time we have realized that they are also particularly energy-intensive entities. We therefore need an energy policy that presides over their development and the energy that their many and diverse assets need. Without, above all, thinking that there is a single silver bullet (there are many technologies and energies to be used) and without giving in to localisms.” These are the words of Elio Ruggeri, President of Assocostieri and Executive Director Lng of Snamwho spoke at the conference today the Economy of the Sea, organized in Genoa by Il Sole 24 Ore in the presence of regional and national institutions.
By participating in the Round table “Green Transition: the need to align energy policy with maritime policy”Ruggeri highlighted the need to avoid “disjointed, patchy actions, forward rushes by individual ports and/or individual operators”.
“A unified management is needed to help ports to be ready for the challenges that await them, thus avoiding their loss of value. For example – continued the President of Assocostieri – renewable energy communities could also be extended to ports, opening up to large operators in the sector. But we must also, and above all, support the transition of current energy logistics towards the commodities of the future. And let’s not forget carbon capture and storage (CCS): existing fleets will continue to use traditional fuels for a long time, so CCS is the key to their decarbonisation and, among other things, would enable a whole new logistics chain that does not yet exist.”
Further focus was given to the transition to new fuels which however, he specified Rogers, “It also depends on the cost factor. We need to focus on the dimensions of scale, which for some carriers, I am thinking of green hydrogen and its derivatives, have yet to be reached. From this point of view, we have infrastructures for the transport of LNG that are already ready, in operation and capable of managing large volumes. There is more: LNG is not, as is sometimes said, a ‘low carbon’ transition solution, but is part of the “no carbon” future of fuels, through the use of bio_LNG, syn-LNG and CCS”.
And how is Italy doing? “In our country – he explained further Ruggeri – the logistics solutions are already ready, the result – thanks to the members of Assocostieri – of over 300 million in investments, which could immediately fuel a significant bunkering market. In 2023 alone, in this sense, we could have served 150 tons of LNG. We therefore hope that favorable conditions will be created for the increase in fleets that use LNG and, at the same time, that we will move towards a simplification of the regulatory procedures relating to bunkering”.