Even in a context of reduced primary energy demand, due to the decline in heating consumption, fossil fuels continue to represent the prevalent component of the Italian energy mix: in the second quarter, in fact, oil and gas cover 71% of the total demand. Renewables stand at 23% and consolidate their contribution thanks to the growing input of solar and wind power. This is the picture taken by the first edition of Polaris, Snam’s new Observatory on the Italian gas system, which will be published today by the group led by Agostino Scornajenchi. The first edition inaugurates a monthly report, which will be accompanied four times a year (in January, April, July, and October) by a quarterly in-depth analysis of the main dynamics related to the world of energy and gas. Its weight, according to the first projections, continues to be crucial for the national energy system with 30% coverage of primary energy demand.
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THE PICTURE OF THE ITALIAN ENERGY SYSTEM
Storage
In this context, made even more complex by the prolonged conflict in the Middle East, storage continues to play a stabilizing role. Italy, Snam’s check highlights, closed the cold season above the level recorded on the same date last year, and the gas supplied to deposits – natural fields that have exhausted their productive phase and are now reconverted into storage facilities – has helped mitigate global market volatility. Thus, between October 2025 and March 2026, Italian sites – whose total capacity is 19 billion cubic meters – supplied 9.5 billion, covering 23% of gas demand. As for filling in view of the next winter season, the level recorded by Polaris (data as of June 30) marks 67%, a level 9 percentage points higher than that recorded in the same month of 2022, the year of the energy crisis following the conflict in Ukraine, and about 18 percentage points higher than the EU average. This trend continued in the following weeks – not detected by the Observatory, which stops with numbers at the end of June – so much so that Italy today has a filling level of over 72% compared to an average for Europe of 54 percent.
All thanks to the high level of stocks accumulated before winter, the careful management of withdrawals, and the timely start of the filling campaign which, despite the repercussions of the crisis between the USA and Iran, will most likely allow Italy to reach the 90% target that, albeit with greater flexibility, Brussels has set as a deadline to be met before the next cold season.
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Gas demand
Snam’s new Polaris Observatory also examines the trend of gas demand, which in the first half of the year stood at 33.1 billion cubic meters, slightly above the same period in 2025 (+0.4%), with the thermoelectric sector showing a 4% increase, while the tertiary and residential sectors recorded a decrease (-1%). The industrial sector, on the other hand, remained almost aligned with 2025 values. In June alone, gas-fired thermoelectric generation amounted to 10.2 terawatt-hours (TWh) and covered 36% of the total electricity demand, within which the contribution of renewables also remains significant, having guaranteed 39% of electricity demand.
In the first half of the year, explains the Polaris Observatory, 3.1 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity were installed (+10% compared to the first half of 2025) and 328 megawatts (MW) of new wind capacity (+20%). Summing up the various renewable energy sources (including hydroelectric and geothermal), growth over the same period in 2025 was 9 percentage points.
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