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The current geopolitical landscape of the European Union has made it clear that the energy sector must be a top priority in EU policy, especially in light of the sudden escalation of Russian–Ukrainian conflicts. Energy efficiency has been used as the first tool of EU policy to tackle energy and climate crises, given the issues surrounding energy vulnerability and the need to limit gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The white certificate mechanism in Italy has played a pivotal role in encouraging measures to achieve the country's energy-saving goals. Given the high energy requirements of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs), especially for aeration in the biological section, this paper examines the replacement of the air distribution system for a large WWTP as a viable intervention. In order to provide economic perspective for the plant, both the discounted Payback Period (dPBP) and the Net Present Value (NPV) were calculated for the investment. When viewed through an economic lens, the dPBP metric exhibits values that span from less than 1 year to nearly 4.5 years. Additionally, the investment's cost-effectiveness was emphasized by the NPV, which, depending on the factors considered, can exceed 17.5 million euros. Finally, given the centrality of the theme of climate change, the avoided greenhouse gas emissions generated by the efficiency intervention were calculated, according to the GHG Protocol, resulting in a quantity of avoided emissions equivalent to over 57,770 tonnes of CO2e. These results highlight important achievements in terms of both the cost-effectiveness of the plant and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the climate policy discussion by focusing on the challenges and opportunities of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 in Italy. To support Italian energy planning, we developed energy roadmaps towards national climate neutrality, consistent with the Paris Agreement objectives and the IPCC goal of limiting the increase in global surface temperature to 1.5 °C. Starting from the Italian framework, these scenarios identify the correlations among the main pillars for the change of the energy paradigm towards net emissions by 2050. The energy scenarios were developed using TIMES-RSE, a partial equilibrium and technology-rich optimization model of the entire Italian energy system. Subsequently, an in-depth analysis was developed with the sMTISIM, a long-term simulator of power system and electricity markets. The results show that, to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the Italian energy system will have to experience profound transformations on multiple and strongly related dimensions. A predominantly renewable-based energy mix (at least 80–90% by 2050) is essential to decarbonize most of the final energy consumption. However, the strong increase of non-programmable renewable sources requires particular attention to new flexibility resources needed for the power system, such as Power-to-X. The green fuels produced from renewables via Power-to-X will be a vital energy source for those sectors where electrification faces technical and economic barriers. The paper's findings also confirm that the European "energy efficiency first" principle represents the very first step on the road to climate neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last ten years have witnessed an increase in publications focusing on bioeconomy as a proposal to confront the global challenges of climate change, depletion of non-renewable resources and ecosystem degradation. This paper investigates the scientific literature on issues related agricultural bioeconomy by applying a bibliometric network analysis. Bibliometric analysis is applied to the publications of the Scopus database during the period 2010–2020 in order to provide an overview of the main aspects that characterize agricultural bioeconomy. The results showed that out of a total of 1100 scientific papers, only 2.45% were published in 2010, while the corresponding share in 2020 was 20.81%. In the five years of 2016–2020, cumulatively, 70.63% of the publications were made, showing the dynamic evolution of bioeconomy. In addition, out of 85 countries in total, Germany and Italy are the two countries with most publications, while the fragmentation of research is evident with the creation of two main nodes, the European and the American. Moreover, keyword analysis showed that biomass and sustainability are two main recurring concepts, confirming that, currently, bioeconomy operates at three different levels: energy demand, land demand, and governance. It is apparent that to boost the development of agricultural bioeconomy, the following aspects should be assessed: the effective use of resources, an understanding of the key drivers of agricultural bioeconomy, and a clear perception of their associations. There is still no consensus as to which are the key factors that will accelerate its sustainable development. Our pursuit is to use the tools of bibliometric analysis to reach more critical conclusions regarding the agricultural bioeconomy, rather than approach it in a static way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has a strong influence on the energy consumption of buildings, affecting both the heating and cooling demand in the actual and future scenario. In this paper, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate the influence of both the occupant behaviour and the climate change on the environmental impact of the heating and cooling systems of an apartment located in southern Italy. The analysis was conducted using IPCC GWP and ReCiPe indicators as well as the Ecoinvent database. The influence of occupant behaviour was included in the analysis considering different usage profiles during the operational phase, while the effect of climate change was considered by varying the weather file every thirty years. The adoption of the real usage profiles showed that the impact of the systems was highly influenced by the occupant behaviour. In particular, the environmental impact of the heating system appeared more influenced by the operation hours, while that of the cooling system was more affected by the natural ventilation schedules. Furthermore, the influence of climate change demonstrated that more attention has to be dedicated to the cooling demand that in the future years will play an ever-greater role in the energy consumption of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current global context, marked by crises such as climate change, the pandemic, and the depletion of fossil fuel resources, underscores the urgent need to minimize waste. Cogeneration technology, which enables simultaneous production of electricity and thermal energy from electricity generation waste, offers a promising solution to enhance energy efficiency. Its widespread adoption, particularly in the European Union, where several cogeneration systems are in place, demonstrates its growing popularity. Italy alone has 1865 high-efficiency cogeneration units, contributing significantly to total cogeneration energy generation. Micro-cogeneration, specifically, has attracted attention for its potential to reduce energy waste and environmental impact. This study focuses on assessing the technical and financial feasibility of a micro-cogeneration plant using natural gas-fuelled internal combustion engines, considering different scenarios of plant operating strategies in order to optimize energy production, minimize waste, and mitigate environmental footprints associated with conventional methods. Additionally, it provides valuable guidance for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and decision-makers invested in sustainable energy solutions. By advancing micro-cogeneration technology, this study aims to promote a more sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to energy production. The methodology applied is based on the development of a numerical model via RETScreen Expert 8 and it was calibrated with one-year energy bills. The study was performed by focusing on the analysis of the annual energy savings, greenhouse gas emission savings, tonnes of oil equivalents savings, and financial parameters such as Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Profitability Index (PI) and Payback time (PBT). The results show, using a micro-cogeneration system in a big complex of buildings, that the financial parameters can continually increase with the plant's capacity with the electrical load following, but with a loss of the recovered heat from the cogenerator because it may reach values that are not necessary for the users. When the thermal load variation is much more significant than the electrical load variation, it will be useful to design the plant to follow the thermal load variation which allows the full utilization of the thermal and energy production from the plant without any waste energy and choosing a system capacity that can optimize the energy, emissions and financial aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2030 zero-net emission target in the E.U. demands a significant improvement in the energy performance of the building stock. This study analyses the adoption of connected thermostats and Home energy-management system solutions (HEMS) as an effective means to tackle the residential energy footprint. It reviews the main features of HEMS systems in terms of technology, cross-study performances, and the obstacles to widespread adoption; the study adopts the case-study methodology to examine the impact on the Italian real estate stock at a regional level. A matrix of adoption scenarios assesses the potential benefits of global residential energy savings, weighted by local climatic variations, dimension, number of single dwellings, and average primary energy reduction per household. Results demonstrate that all adoption scenarios dramatically reduce residential energy consumption, outperforming the E.U. targets for Italy by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy performance of buildings is a worldwide increasing investigated field, due to ever more stringent energy standards aimed at reducing the buildings' impact on the environment. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact that occupant behavior and climate change have on the heating and cooling needs of residential buildings. With this aim, data of a questionnaire survey delivered in Southern Italy were used to obtain daily use profiles of natural ventilation, heating, and cooling, both in winter and in summer. Three climatic scenarios were investigated: The current scenario (2020), and two future scenarios (2050 and 2080). The CCWorldWeatherGen tool was used to create the weather files of future climate scenarios, and DesignBuilder was applied to conduct dynamic energy simulations. Firstly, the results obtained for 2020 demonstrated how the occupants' preferences related to the use of natural ventilation, heating, and cooling systems (daily schedules and temperature setpoints) impact on energy needs. Heating energy needs appeared more affected by the heating schedules, while cooling energy needs were mostly influenced by both natural ventilation and usage schedules. Secondly, due to the temperature rise, substantial decrements of the energy needs for heating and increments of cooling energy needs were observed in all the future scenarios where in addition, the impact of occupant behavior appeared amplified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to assess the impacts of climate change on photovoltaic (PV) electricity in two Italian cities, with different latitudes and Köppen–Geiger climate classifications. This was undertaken using the recent EURO-CORDEX set of high-resolution climate projections and PV power generation models, implemented on TRNSYS software. Data for two variables (surface air temperature and solar radiation) were analysed over a long period from 1971 to 2100. For future periods, two of the Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report were considered. In both RCP scenarios and both locations, it is estimated that the yearly PV energy produced in the future period will not undergo significant variations on average given that the rate of decrease is foreseen almost constant; instead, a slight reduction in the PV energy was detected in the past period. It can be concluded that the PV market in Italy will grow in the next years considering that the reduction in the foreseen PV purchase costs will be also supported by the slight positive effect of climate change on PV manufacturability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the share of renewable energy in the power generation mix plays a pivotal role in the decarbonisation of power systems, thus facilitating the achievement of international and national targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change. Due to the intermittent nature of variable renewable energy, the integration of these sources in power systems requires investments in additional solutions and setting strategies to ensure grid stability and reliability. For that purpose, a prospective modelling was applied to the relatively isolated island named Procida, located in the gulf of Naples in Italy, through the bottom-up optimization model TIMES-Procida for a long-term energy plan where technical solutions, i.e., deployment of photovoltaics on rooftops and storage, and policy scenarios, i.e., energy efficiency, were used to analyse the evolution of the energy system. The introduction of renewable energy could be much more relevant when dealing with islands; they appear as decisive territories for experimentation and analysis of the transformation of all power systems. At year 2050, our results address decarbonisation and energy autonomy. They show that only with high shares of renewable energy will the territory see a noticeable decarbonisation of its economic sectors (up to 24%) and a decreasing dependency on imports (−16.6% compared to low renewable integration). By comparing the results of scenarios including or lacking storage solutions, we showcased how this reflected on the investments in PV and on grid congestion relief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]