To be competitive and reliable with solar and wind, you need to study and solve the problems that limit its diffusion.

Renewable energies were, until a few years ago, seen as a snobbish passion, of some inveterate environmentalist who enjoyed being against the tide, nonconformist and alternative.

Proof is the fact that on the bureaucrats' desks have been sitting for a long time, awaiting approval, a considerable number of projects, which passed from one office to another, dramatically lengthening the time required to obtain approval or rejection.

The international energy crisis, caused first by Covid and subsequently by the Russian-Ukraine crisis, made it clear to the European chancelleries how central they were , for our future, renewable energies.

There have recently been huge investments in both solar and wind, based on the geographical location of the projects, favoring solar in southern Europe and the wind power, also offshore, in northern Europe.

Unfortunately in these years in which fossil sources have guaranteed the functioning of transport, industries and domestic users, through a comfortable and tested, the technological research to pass renewable energies, from micro production to large-scale production, has had a very slow trend and a lot of time has been lost.

Today there is the need to run to find valid solutions that the sector requires, technical, economic and political issues need to be resolved substantial, to make renewable energies the first sources of energy for the whole world.

What are these issues to solve?

As regards the energy produced both by the wind and by the sun, the problem of the inconstancy of production for meteorological reasons, the lack of sun during the 24 hours and the temporary lack of wind.

The crux is the accumulators, which must be able to be much more efficient than they are today, allowing for the storage of the energy produced in excess, so that it can be used when there is a shortage of production.

The research will concern the new materials for the electrodes (cathode and anode) and for the electrolytes, the objective of which will be to increase energy density, improve safety, reduce cost, and extend battery life and cycle life.

In addition, as regards electrolysers, materials will have to be taken into consideration, both for those at low temperatures (<100° C) and those at high temperatures (600-900°C), while in the case of photovoltaics, the focus will be on the development of innovative thin-film perovskite solar cells, sustainable methods and techniques for recovering materials from photovoltaic panels at the end of their life, but also of hybrid and integrated photovoltaic-storage systems for the management of the intermittence of the solar source.

Then there are the nodes of an industrial nature, as the production of solar panels and batteries is dangerously moved to Southeast Asia , with problems that not only concern industrial efficiency, but also become political, since the holding of raw materials and production that have become essential in the world, by a few countries will probably lead to exacerbate international tensions at 'increase in international demand.

Machine translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.