The Sotacarbo Research Centre in Carbonia is hosting for five days (June 10^th -14^th) the 8^th edition of the international Summer School for PhD students and young researchers interested in energy related topics. The role of renewable sources and synthetic fuels is the main topic of this edition.

The School, organized in collaboration with the University of Cagliari, the International Energy Agency (International Centre for Sustainable Carbon), CO2GeoNet and the European network of laboratories of excellence ECCSEL-ERIC, was opened by the Sole Administrator of Sotacarbo Mario Porcu: “We’re proud to be able to ensure, thanks to our long-standing partners such as the University of Cagliari and the International Energy Agency, the highest level of education to students all over the world”.

Once again this year, the programme indeed features the participation of high-profile lecturers from Argentina, Australia, Germany, India, Norway, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Spain and United States, as well as various universities and Italian companies. The origin of the thirty or so students, twenty of whom are foreigners, is also very heterogeneous: from Holland to the United States, from Iran to Ghana.

An event that ensures a very high level of education especially needed at this moment in time, as pointed out by the mayor of Carbonia Pietro Morittu and reiterated by the pro-rector of the University of Cagliari Fabrizio Pilo: “The University shares with Sotacarbo a vision of the energetic transition as a great opportunity. It’s a train that must not be missed. This school, too, must be a lighthouse, a beacon for training the new professions that will characterize the path towards climatic neutrality”.

The rest of the opening day featured presentations in the morning by Marcello Capra, senior advisor at the Ministry of Energy Security, and Tudy Bernier, director of CO2 Value Europe policies, who discussed respectively the Italy’s strategy towards decarbonization and the complex framework of regulations and incentives supporting the European Green Deal.
 

In the afternoon session the overview of current different policies around the world was completed by the lectures of Bhima Sastri (Director of the Department of Energy of the United States), who illustrated the role assigned to small-scale nuclear power in the US strategy; and Noel Simento (Director of Anlec), who highlighted the major concerns which “separate the ambitions on paper of the Australian strategy from reality”.