Renewable energies and energy efficiency, TIM’s contribution

05/25/2021 - 12:30 PM

Press release

ERG and TIM agreement for the supply of electricity produced from renewable sources

Press release

A2A and TIM agreement for digital transformation and energy efficiency

Being the country’s second energy-intensive company means being aware of one’s role in the ecological transition, the environmental protection and the commitment necessary to make this happen.

For this reason, with ERG, a few days ago we signed the most extensive long-term agreement in Italy for the supply of electricity produced from renewable sources. For a 10-year period, from 2022 to 2031, ERG will supply us with 100% green energy for 3.4 TWh, amounting to around 20% of our energy consumption. It will be produced by wind farms, including ones to be renewed and upgraded in southern Italy, and in particular those in Lacedonia Monteverde, in the province of Avellino, and Avigliano, in the province of Potenza.

Fixed and mobile networks, data centres, shops: the basic elements of our business have to be powered by energy and require increasing amounts given the continued growth of traffic and the demand for services. This is why increasing energy efficiency and making more use of renewable resources is one of our strategic objectives. The positive consequences are systemic. Just think that 3.2% (*) of total global CO2 emissions is produced by data centres alone and that Italy as a whole is in 4th place when it comes to energy consumption in Europe, and 3rd for energy consumption from renewable sources, after Germany and France (**).

In Italy, in 2019, the main contribution to the production of energy from renewable sources came from hydroelectricity, followed by photovoltaic, bioenergy, wind and geothermic sources.

Wind power, however, represents a radical change in how energy is produced, as it is economically sustainable. In Italy this tendency is spreading from the central-south region, but it represents a global trend. According to Bloomberg data, globally the installed wind power capacity is set to increase seven times by 2040, reaching 2,033 GW from 282 GW recorded in 2012.

This data clearly explains the basis of our agreement with ERG, an important step along the energy path embarked on by our group.

By the end of 2020, TIM’s energy consumption from renewable sources had already reached 30% and our total energy consumption in Italy reduced on the previous year. This figure is significant, above all if we take into account the simultaneous rise in data traffic due to the pandemic crisis: in just a few days, in March last year, the volume of data to be managed doubled, putting our infrastructure to an exceptional “stress test.”

In addition, activities are underway to gradually replace the copper network with optical fibre and deploy the 5G networks. A change that contributes to achievement of the national objectives to increase energy efficiency, given that the new technologies combine greater performance with lower consumption (***). This technological development is also essential to expand all the production sectors and services throughout the country.

We are also committed to the re-engineering of cooling plants, the replacement of transformers and energy stations, and we have created the first two pilot projects for the application of artificial intelligence algorithms in two data centres. This is also the direction taken by the recent agreement with A2A, which will offer TIM its experience in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies, using artificial intelligence technologies.

So in this context, the agreement with ERG represents a further important step in our energy journey. The goal we have set ourselves is to become carbon neutral: by 2030 we want to eliminate our direct and indirect emissions as well as those deriving from energy consumption, thereby contributing to the change in pace towards the sustainability required by our country and the environment.

* Source: data elaborated by Centro Studi TIM
** Source: 2021 GESI Report
*** Information referred to lower energy consumption per Gygabyte of data transferred

Renewable energies and energy efficiency, TIM’s contribution

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