The production of paper is an energy-intensive process and represents approximately 9% of the final energy consumption in the industrial sector in Italy in 2016. While the energy intensity of the entire manufacturing sector has decreased by 51% in the last twenty years, the paper industry has shown a slower improvement of just 4%. Therefore, the sector offers ample opportunities for improving energy efficiency and, to this end, adequate knowledge of energy saving potentials and their costs are indispensable requirements for designing effective policies. After evaluating the current technologies and energy performance of the Italian paper industry, this paper identifies the technical and economic potential for saving fuel and electricity in the sector. While many studies in this field use data on efficient technologies taken from literature, surveys or even theoretical estimates, the added value of this paper is the use of real data from 110 energy efficiency measures implemented under the white certificate scheme by companies operating in the paper sector in Italy.

The analysis indicates that energy saving potentials—according to conservative technology penetration rates—amount to 0.8 TWh for electricity and 4.47 TWh for fossil fuel consumption: these savings are equal to 12.6% and 18.6% of the demand for electricity and fuel respectively, and can be translated into CO₂ emissions savings of 353 kt.