From the Alps to the cities: when hydroelectric power lit up Italy

Restarting with large dams to make the best use of water and pursue sustainable growth.

At the beginning of the 20th century, when all of Europe was powered by coal, water began to be the fuel for Italian growth. Regions like Piedmont, Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy, and Veneto discovered step by step that the water reserves provided by the mountains were an invaluable resource and that, if well managed, they could become a formidable energy accelerator.

This is how the projects for the construction of the great Italian dams were born, many of them built in rugged places, among mountains two thousand meters high, when construction skills were still entrusted to human hands and wisdom. This is the story of the Morasco Dam, built between 1936 and 1940 by a company that later merged into the Webuild Group. A unique dam (50 metres tall and a reservoir with 19.38 million m3), located at an altitude of 1,815 meters, with all work concentrated in the summer because the climate was too harsh to allow work in the winter months.

The energy produced by the Morasco Dam would be essential over the years both to power the railway lines under construction and to support the growth and industrial development of the city of Milan. The Val di Lei Dam, also built by Webuild in the 1950s, stands at an altitude of two thousand meters on the border between Italy and Switzerland. When it was inaugurated in 1959, the dam had a crest length of 690 meters, the largest in the world at the time, and its three power plants produced energy for the entire Swiss canton of Graubünden.

From the early 20th century, through the post-war reconstruction years to the present day, the dams built by Webuild have become accelerators of progress, fueling Italian growth. They still play this role today, in a complex situation where climate change and consequent drought are making water increasingly scarce and precious.

The Water Chain

The years 2022 and 2023 were drought years. And 2024 does not seem to be any different. Last year – according to the Cima (International Center for Environmental Monitoring) – the snow deficit in the Alps was -69% compared to the average of the last twelve years. 2024 was then marked by another alarming sign. For the first time, the Observatory of the Eastern Alps River Basin Authority declared a state of medium water severity (when water begins to be scarce) as early as February, usually declared no earlier than April.

The past winter was poor in precipitation, and the little snow that fell melted already in spring, leaving summer without an adequate water reserve. Less snow naturally means less water, so rivers are lower, and agricultural crops are in difficulty. In Lombardy, statistics show that the stored water resource is 60% lower than the average of recent years. Water is scarce, and what is available must be well managed.

Hydroelectric power in Italy: an Energy Driver

Water availability is essential for operating Italian hydroelectric plants, currently the country’s primary source of clean energy, responsible for an average of 15% of the energy produced in Italy. The Ispi (Institute for International Political Studies) has calculated that in 2024, hydroelectric plant production will not exceed 27.7 TWh, the same result as in 2023 but significantly lower than in 2021 (48.3 TWh) and previous years when the average was around 49 TWh.

The water scarcity and consequent reduction in plant activity mean that the share of hydroelectric power in the total energy produced in a year in Italy has shrunk to 9%. Consequently, the total percentage of green energy in Italian energy production has decreased from 35% to 30%. The data show how the slowdown of hydroelectric power equates to a regression for the country in terms of sustainability and the goal many European countries have set to achieve zero emissions by 2050. Only investments can provide an answer to this problem.

The European House – Ambrosetti calculates that Italy should allocate 48 billion euros to the sector, resources necessary to modernize existing plants and build new ones. This is the path to take: to make the best and most sustainable use of water, a resource that must be protected not only for the environment but also for the country’s development.