ENEA - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development

Italy’s energy transition showed little progress in 2025, as greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption remained broadly unchanged, in line with trends observed across the EU. Prices are still significantly higher than in the pre-crisis period of 2022 (gas +70%, electricity +100%). These are the main findings of ENEA’s Analysis of the Italian Energy System for 2025, which also highlights a slight increase in renewables (+1%), still far below PNIEC targets (-20%). Preliminary data for the first quarter of 2026 show both CO₂ emissions and energy consumption declining by 1%.

Developing mechanisms and engineering solutions to ensure safety and reliability of fourth-generation lead-cooled nuclear reactors is the goal achieved by the €4 million PASCAL project, coordinated by ENEA and co-funded by Euratom as part of the EU Horizon 2020 program. The project involved 16 European partners and produced over 40 technical reports and 15 scientific articles.

ENEA has deployed three new bio-reefs in the centre of the Bay of Santa Teresa in Lerici (La Spezia), made from an innovative mortar containing mussel shells, with the aim of promoting the repopulation of the European oyster (Ostrea edulis), a filter-feeding mollusc that helps to regenerate marine environments, protect biodiversity and regulate the climate. The initiative was carried out by ENEA in collaboration with the Cooperativa di Mitilicoltori Associati, the Municipality of Lerici and the Scuola di Mare as part of the RAISE project to develop nature-based regenerative solutions aimed at

Reducing reliance on platinum group metals, decreasing environmental impact and contributing to sustainable resource management are the principles guiding the European CHemPGM project, which includes ENEA, dedicated to the development of safe and green strategies for the use and recovery of platinum, palladium and rhodium, officially classified by the European Commission as “critical raw materials” due to supply shortages and a high supply and demand gap.

ENEA has developed a virtual replica of its entire high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, including the CRESCO supercomputer  at the Portici Research Center (Naples), to monitor physical resources in real time, optimize operations and simulate energy-saving strategies. The activities, presented at various international conferences and published in the online journal Association for Computing Machinery, were carried out as part of the PNRR ‘Rome Technopole’ project.

Daily air quality forecasts in Europe with high resolution (up to 3 kilometers), leveraging satellite data from the European Copernicus program and expanding pollen forecasting to enhance allergy prevention, are the main innovations of the new European project CAMS2-40-bis of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. Through this project, the European Center for Medium-Term Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is continuing its air quality research, conducted by a consortium of 11 partners, including ENEA for Italy, succeeding the previous five-year CAMS2-40 initiative.

New solutions for organic waste management in Mediterranean countries will be developed and tested as part of the €2.5 million European MEDWISE project, involving seven partners from six countries, including ENEA and the University of Catania (coordinator) for Italy.