A Study for the Optimal Exploitation of Solar, Wind and Hydro Resources and Electrical Storage Systems in the Bormida Valley in the North of Italy

Stefano Bracco
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Stefano Bracco: Electrical, Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering and Naval Architecture Department (DITEN), University of Genoa, Via Opera Pia 11a, 16145 Genoa, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-26

Abstract: The exploitation of distributed renewable energy sources leads to a low-carbon energy transition, mainly based on the optimal integration of hydro, PV and wind power plants with the remaining high-performance fossil-fuel power stations. In the last twenty years, European Union (EU) countries have shown a significant increase of the power installed in new PV and wind power plants, together with the refurbishment of small and medium size hydro stations. In particular, in Italy, PV and wind energy production has strongly increased and nowadays there are regions characterized by a very green energy mix. In this new scenario, energy storage becomes a viable solution to mitigate the variability of renewable energy sources thus optimizing the network operation. The present paper is focused on the Liguria region, in the North of Italy and in particular on the Bormida Valley where nowadays more than the half of the annual electricity consumption is covered by the renewable energy local production. The paper describes the current energy situation and proposes an optimization tool to investigate the possibility of installing new PV and wind power plants, as well as energy intensive storage units based on sodium-sulphur batteries; moreover, different scenarios are analyzed through the definition of economic and environmental key performance indicators.

Keywords: renewable energy; solar; wind; hydro; storage batteries; loads; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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