Enel’s chief executive has launched a strong defense of the Italian state-controlled utility’s renewable energy push, as he faces being ousted by the new government in Rome as soon as next month.
Francesco Starace has turned the €55 billion power company into one of the world’s biggest renewable energy producers since taking over in 2014. He said the change had proved its usefulness during the energy crisis and would position the group well as the EU tries to end its dependence. Russian gas.
“It shows the company has delivered on 2022, which was a very tough year,” Starace told the Financial Times.
“This is the moment where it will show very well the strength we have in the Trajectory system.”
Media reports have suggested that the new right-wing Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is interviewing other potential candidates for Starace’s job.
Italian officials have suggested their advisers are dissatisfied with the 68-year-old chief executive’s focus on the energy transition. Meloni has previously supported increased domestic drilling for natural gas and criticized climate campaigners such as Greta Thunberg.
Starace has been a vocal supporter of moving away from fossil fuels, and Enel now bills itself as the world’s largest renewable energy company with 56GW of low-carbon energy under management.
The chief executive has advocated a drastic reduction in gas consumption for non-industrial purposes, while Enel is gradually closing its coal-fired plants as part of its zero-emission power generation target. He told the FT that there had been little debate over the strategy, describing it as “clearly the way to go”.
Starace said Enel was in “full agreement” with the new government’s efforts to diversify its energy sources away from Russia, describing energy security as “what matters most for the sovereignty of any country”. .
Enel is abandoning Argentina, Peru and Romania as part of a €21bn divestment plan aimed at reducing its debt, which had risen to €69bn at the end of 2022, partly due to additional costs that Helps protect customers from rising wholesale prices. Ratings agency Fitch said last week that the divestment would “modestly improve the group’s business profile and simplify its structure”.
On Monday, Enel will unveil a new solar panel factory in Sicily, partly funded by an EU grant, that is set to become Europe’s largest. Stares said Enel is planning a similar facility in the US, where the Biden administration has created large subsidies for renewable investment.
The move is part of a push to reduce the West’s dependence on China, the world’s biggest maker of solar panels.
Meloni warned last year that “changes in electricity without controlling raw materials will make us even more dependent on China than on Russia”.
Stares described the growth of renewables as “a huge trend that is stronger than the little accidents along the way” and criticized those blaming rising energy prices across Europe on a shift to clean energy. Did.
“Why are we in this problem? Not because we are highly dependent on only one country’s gas sources, but because we had a green strategy? This is a complete distortion,” he said.
The Enel chief dismissed speculation about his future as “noise”, arguing that he saw no “contradiction” between the government and his strategy, but said that “none is inevitable”.
“I like this job. I’ve done it, I think, very well and I think it’s recognized. But I’m not power crazy and I like my life. So if I can be useful Well, if not, I can do a lot more,” Starace said.
“If someone else wants to take it and wants to change the government, what can I do about it? No problem.”
