Electricity In Italy Research Articles

Feasibility of wave energy harvesting in the Ligurian Sea

A series of short and mid-term guidelines have been established due to the pursuit to offer clean energy and reduce the environmental impact in the Mediterranean and European environment. Currently, the scientific community and the industrial sector promote to find new technologies and means to achieve these regulations. Efforts to provide sustainable ways to supply electricity in Italy have led to the exploration of marine renewable energies (MRE) in the Mediterranean Sea. In particular, in the Ligurian Sea, where the wave climate can provide one of the higher energy sources, represents an optimal opportunity for supplying this energy resource to coastal cities. However, the wave conditions are not as significant as those in other marine regions around the world. There are several devices currently developed which can be applicable to the region. Hence, an evaluation from a technical and economic perspective is advised. Additionally we also investigate the scaling and survival considerations for Wave Energy Converters (WECs) when facing extreme storm events. The proposed study offers the evaluation of a sustainable alternative for powering the electricity mix in the Liguria region, through the exploitation of the wave energy resource. Attractive findings emerge after the assessment of eight floating-body wave energy converters.

Hydrogen from renewables: Is it always green? The Italian scenario

Green hydrogen production through water electrolysis is recognized as a pillar for the energy transition toward a complete decarbonized economy. The aim of this study is to investigate the potentiality of electrolytic hydrogen (suggesting stricter definitions of green and yellow hydrogen) from grid electricity in Italy and its impact on the reduction of renewable power curtailment and CO2 emissions for the scenarios with increased photovoltaic and wind capacities up to 5 times the 2019 ones. Several electrolysis overall capacities, defined on the basis of the curtailment duration curve, were analyzed. Results showed that hydrogen production based only on the curtailed energy (green hydrogen) leads to a very low utilization factor of the electrolyzers (no more than 22% in the highest penetration scenario) and consequent high specific hydrogen production costs. The annual production of green hydrogen is small in all analyzed cases and far from the stated Italian and European targets. A minimum electrolysis utilization factor should be imposed to reduce the hydrogen production cost by using additional natural gas-generated electricity (yellow hydrogen). However, in this way, specific emissions increase and become even greater than those of the most diffuse steam methane reforming process when the utilization factor imposed doubles the green hydrogen one. The sensitivity analysis showed the influence of the capital cost of the electrolyzers and of the electricity cost for additional non-curtailed energy on the levelized cost of hydrogen.

Energy, environmental and economic analysis of electric vapour compression and gas driven absorption heat pumps for single-family houses

The aim of this paper is to compare energy consumptions, CO2 emissions, and operative costs of condensing boilers, electric vapour compression heat pumps and gas driven absorption heat pumps to provide space heating and domestic hot water. The analysis is performed for 140 m2 single-family houses in five different Italian cities whose envelope features depend on the location. For each location, two different envelope conditions are considered. The first one is a non-insulated building, while the second one is the same building, but an external thermal insulation is added on vertical walls and roof. To avoid internal renovation, radiators are maintained as emission system. Combined dynamic simulations are performed to appreciate building and system interactions. A 6 second time step is set to evaluate properly interactions and the DHW profile demand. In addition, the GHP dynamic model is a grey box model experimentally validated. The results show that electric vapour compression heat pumps reach the highest non-renewable primary energy savings (>32%) compared to condensing boilers, but their operative costs are higher due to the higher specific cost of electricity in Italy. Gas driven absorption heat pumps achieve a lower consumption reduction than electric heat pumps (>22%), but they have also the minimum operative cost among the three technologies.

Optimal Integration of Hydrogen-Based Energy Storage Systems in Photovoltaic Microgrids: A Techno-Economic Assessment

The feasibility and cost-effectiveness of hydrogen-based microgrids in facilities, such as public buildings and small- and medium-sized enterprises, provided by photovoltaic (PV) plants and characterized by low electric demand during weekends, were investigated in this paper. Starting from the experience of the microgrid being built at the Renewable Energy Facility of Sardegna Ricerche (Italy), which, among various energy production and storage systems, includes a hydrogen storage system, a modeling of the hydrogen-based microgrid was developed. The model was used to analyze the expected performance of the microgrid considering different load profiles and equipment sizes. Finally, the microgrid cost-effectiveness was evaluated using a preliminary economic analysis. The results demonstrate that an effective design can be achieved with a PV system sized for an annual energy production 20% higher than the annual energy requested by the user and a hydrogen generator size 60% of the PV nominal power size. This configuration leads to a self-sufficiency rate of about 80% and, without public grants, a levelized cost of energy comparable with the cost of electricity in Italy can be achieved with a reduction of at least 25–40% of the current initial costs charged for the whole plant, depending on the load profile shape.

Design of a combined power, heating and cooling system at sized and undersized configurations for a reference building: Technoeconomic and topological considerations in Iran and Italy

The objective of the present paper is sizing of a technically optimum and economically feasible cogeneration system to supply heating, cooling and electricity to a reference building in the city of Pisa, Italy, for different months of the year. This cogeneration system is proposed in two operational modes, sized and under-sized, so that the effect of natural gas and electricity consumption costs on the system design can be achieved. To this end, the amount of energy consumption and cost of various types of the proposed cogeneration systems based on reciprocating engines are computed and compared. Afterward, in the proposed systems, for understanding the effect of the costs of the energy carriers in different countries on the rate of payback period, a comparison is conducted on the payback period between Iran and Italy. In the end, a sensitivity analysis is performed in Iran and Italy to survey the effect of any change in the cost of investment, natural gas, and electricity on the payback period. The results indicated that although the costs of gas and electricity are comparatively lower, the payback period is longer for Iran, which can be blamed on Iran’s higher discount rate (~50%). The results of sensitivity analysis showed that if the natural gas cost in Italy equals that of Iran, there would be a 6.4% reduction in the payback period and if the electricity cost consumption in Iran is taken equivalent to the cost of electricity in Italy, a decrease of 25% will appear in the payback period.

Short-term predictability of photovoltaic production over Italy

Photovoltaic (PV) power production increased drastically in Europe throughout the last years. Since about the 6% of electricity in Italy comes from PV, an accurate and reliable forecasting of production would be needed for an efficient management of the power grid. We investigate the possibility to forecast daily PV electricity production up to ten days without using on-site measurements of meteorological variables. Our study uses a PV production dataset of 65 Italian sites and it is divided in two parts: first, an assessment of the predictability of meteorological variables using weather forecasts; second, an analysis of predicting solar power production through data-driven modelling. We calibrate Support Vector Machine (SVM) models using available observations and then we apply the same models on the weather forecasts variables to predict daily PV power production. As expected, cloud cover variability strongly affects solar power production, we observe that while during summer the forecast error is under the 10% (slightly lower in south Italy), during winter it is abundantly above the 20%.

Assessment of the minimum value of photovoltaic electricity in Italy

AbstractWe investigate the value of solar photovoltaic (PV) power in the Italian wholesale electricity market (IPEX). A model is developed and applied to simulate and predict the monthly average electricity prices in peak hours, as well as to simulate scenarios without PV generation. The computed merit‐order effect of the PV generation in Italy, around −2.9 €/MWh per each additional GWh of PV production, as well as the greater −4.5 €/MWh absolute value evaluated under the hypothesis of stationary electricity demand, are in line with the upper values found in related studies of near mature renewable energy markets. A strong relationship of the value of PV electricity in the IPEX with the electricity demand is clearly evident, leading to important policy implications in terms of possible actions on the granted subsidies, electrification of energy end use, and promotion of specific PV technologies. The anomalous temporal behavior of the IPEX, shown by high off‐peak electricity prices that followed the installation of Italy's large PV park, partly offsets the beneficial effect of PV generation.

Regulatory Reform and Industrial Restructuring: The Cases of Water, Gas, and Electricity in Italy

Regulatory reforms are often made and implemented with the aim to introduce some competitive mechanisms in infrastructure industries which were previously regulated through public ownership. The impact of these reforms on the organisation and behaviour of infrastructure industries, however, may result in partial restructuring of the regulated sector only and may not deliver the expected performance improvements. This paper aims to address this issue by analysing and discussing the regulatory reforms and the industrial restructuring which took place in the water, the gas, and the electricity sectors in Italy in the last about 15 years. Each of these three infrastructure industries was subject to regulatory reforms (Act 36/1994, Legislative Decree 164/2000, and Legislative Decree 79/1999 respectively). This paper contrasts and compares these reforms in terms of: economic regulatory institutions, tariff setting mechanisms, spacial organisation of the services, degree of involvement of the private sector, and industrial restructuring. The impact of these reforms is assessed along the dimensions of: degree of openness to new entrants, market power retained by the incumbents, concentration of the industry, prices, and investments. On the whole, although the reforms of the water, gas, and electricity industries in Italy present unique features and effects, they all resulted in relatively modest achievements in terms of competitive pressures. This has consequences in terms of relative stability of prices and reliance on public funds for financing infrastructure development.

Feasibility of polygeneration in energy supply systems for health-care facilities under the Italian climate and boundary conditions

This article investigates the opportunities of a multi-energy system in a hospital facility under the Italian climate and boundary conditions. One of the benchmarks for tertiary buildings constructed by the U.S. DOE (Department of Energy) to be used in association with the energy simulation software EnergyPlus was taken as a reference hospital. After importing that benchmark under the Italian climatic conditions (in the Turin, Florence and Naples locations) and determining the energy needs for heating energy, cooling energy and electricity, several polygeneration alternatives were presented. The reference configuration of the benchmark case study is based on a one-energy rationale (one energy carrier for each load), while the polygeneration alternatives (cogeneration, trigeneration and renewable) are based on a multi-energy rationale (variable energy carriers used in several converters to cover the same load with the maximum efficiency and reliability). By means of a multi-energy systems modeling framework, the scenarios that are most efficient or profitable were determined. Results show that renewable energy is far from covering the whole energy demand of a hospital, and that – given the actual Italian primary energy weighting factor for electricity, that is the amount of source energy required for the production of one unit of electricity in Italy – trigeneration can be feasible only from an economic point of view, and not from an energy point of view.

Regulatory Reform and Industrial Restructuring: The Cases of Water, Gas, and Electricity in Italy

Regulatory reforms are often made and implemented with the aim to introduce some competitive mechanisms in infrastructure industries which were previously regulated through public ownership. The impact of these reforms on the structure and performance of infrastructure industries, however, may not deliver the expected improvements. This paper aims to address this issue by analysing and discussing the regulatory reforms and the industrial restructuring which took place in the water, the gas, and the electricity sectors in Italy in the last about 15 years. This paper contrasts and compares these reforms in terms of economic regulatory institutions, tariff setting mechanisms, territorial organisation of the services, degree of involvement of the private sector, and degree of industrial restructuring. The impact of these reforms is assessed along the dimensions of degree of openness to new entrants, concentration of the industry, tariffs, and investments. On the whole these reforms resulted in relatively modest achievements in terms of competitive pressures and their effects on industry performance are still to be fully realised. Conclusions are drawn with respect to the need for further steps in the liberalisation and re-regulation of infrastructure industries at both the national and the EU levels.

Il costo dell'elettricitŕ prodotta da fonti rinnovabili in Italia: una stima dei costi delle "inefficenze" del sistema

- The promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) is a high European Union (EU) priority for several reasons, including the security and diversification of energy supply, environmental protection and social and economic cohesion. The EU Council's decision of 9 March 2007 points towards increasing renewable penetration to 20% of total primary energy supply by 2020 (binding target). There are both costs and benefits associated with the achievement of such an ambitious target. For renewable technologies, the industrial cost is often higher compared to other energy sources. however, due to learning curve effects and market diffusion, technology related costs are coming down considerably. In some cases, when the external costs are taken into account by the price system, renewables can now be close to competitive with fossil fuels. With particular reference to renewable electricity in Italy, its development is often hampered by burdensome and time consuming authorisation procedures with the consequence of a high "mortality" rate for the investments in the sector, leading to increased costs for the project management. Therefore, in these projects an important cost factor is the high cost of capital due to risk. The analysis of the various renewables' support mechanisms currently in place in the EU shows that some types of incentive have proven to be more efficient than others in reducing the risk perception of investors and financing institutions, therefore making projects less expensive by reducing the cost of capital (both debt and equity). Therefore the focus here is on the electricity generation costs of some renewable technologies and on the costs related to the "additional" risk perceived by investors/lenders in the sector. The authors estimate the additional cost of capital which investors pay when operating in a risky environment. Some policy indications are finally given to reduce the non-technology related costs for a faster and more efficient growth of the sector. JEL Class. L98, Q28, Q48 Key words: renewable energy, electricity cost, administrative procedures, system inefficiency

95/00533 Electricity in Italy

95/00533 Electricity in Italy