The Clean Energy Package presented by the European Commission in 2016 set the goals for 2030 in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, renewables and energy efficiency. At the same time, the need to build a Union that ensures accessible energy from an economic, safety and sustainability point of view was recalled. These principles are specific to the well-known Sustainable development goal 7 which aims precisely to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. However, according to the Progress towards the SDGs report, despite the efforts that have been made for several decades there is still a long way from achieving this goal. Many European countries are aware of this condition and how important it is to promote policies aimed at increasing the share of renewables. Therefore it is possible to identify many studies that have analyzed possible pathways for this transition (Deane et al., 2015; Graabak et al., 2019; Jäger-Waldau, 2020; Oh et al., 2014; Xunzhang et al., 2017). Among the strategies to achieve these objectives, rules and incentive solutions to support renewables have been widely defined. In Italy the decree of 04.07.2019, known as "FER 1", aims to provide economic support for investments in renewables and it is of interest for this research. It is carried out in the field of photovoltaic solar and shows how the productivity of an integrated photovoltaic system changes, and therefore the economic feasibility, with the variation of: Italian region of location, tilt angle and technology used. The research has developed a methodology based on technical and economic criteria, validated in case studies. From a technical point of view, this methodology takes into consideration all the main variables that affect the productivity of a photovoltaic system. Once the "n" possible scenarios have been defined, the methodological approach provides for economic analyzes to be carried out, performed using the discounted cash flow (DCF) method and calculating net present value (NPV) and discounted payback period (DPBT). Once all the simulations and analyzes have been completed, the approach involves the preparation of a summary matrix of the main results obtained, from a technical point of view and from an economic one. The building chosen as a case study to validate the methodology is located in Central Italy, in the Abruzzo Region and in particular in a place called San Demetrio nè Vestini (Annibaldi et al., 2020). It is a public building of the Municipal Administration, used as a school. In the study, it was decided to repeat the analyzes carried out in Central Italy location, also in Northern Italy, i.e. Milan, and in the South, i.e. Palermo. Regarding the tilt, the three most common angles of inclination have been chosen: 15°, 30° and 45°. In relation to the technology, polycrystalline, monocrystalline and thin film have been used. By crossing these parameters, it was possible to obtain 27 different scenarios. The results obtained show how the profitability of the PV system is verified in 21 out of 27 cases. The greatest profitability is obtained in the case of Southern Italy with a monocrystalline technology and an inclination angle of 30°. Furthermore, any case study located in Southern Italy has greater profitability than the respective case studies located in Northern and Central Italy. This is because the PV plant located in Southern Italy has greater efficiency and therefore greater System Output energy. However, even in the case study located in Southern Italy with thin film technology, the profitability of the plant is not high and the negative cash flows are repaid by positive cash flows at the end of the life of the plant (20 years). For the other case studies located in Northern and Central Italy with a thin film technology, the PV plant will give an economic loss. For the remaining technologies the value of the NPV is always greater than zero, they are therefore profitable investments. This is also confirmed by the DPBT index. In fact, the time required to recover the investment is a maximum of 9 years. However, leaving only the technology to vary, monocrystalline technology leads to greater economic profitability, despite this having a higher investment cost. Finally, with the same technology used and the location of the system, an inclination angle of 30° allows greater economic profitability. This is due exclusively to technical choices that allow the plant output to be maximized. In fact, for an inclination angle of 30° SOE_0 assumes the highest value with the remaining hypotheses being equal. The research illustrated has shown that the FER1 decree is suitable for encouraging photovoltaics especially in the southern regions while it would be desirable that in the northern regions it was more used to encourage other technologies. Furthermore, the illustrated methodology could be used to optimize the process of exploiting renewable energy for better energy performance.

Political decision to support the feasibility of renewables

ANNIBALDI V;CUCCHIELLA F;ROTILIO M
;
GASTALDI M
2021-01-01

Abstract

The Clean Energy Package presented by the European Commission in 2016 set the goals for 2030 in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, renewables and energy efficiency. At the same time, the need to build a Union that ensures accessible energy from an economic, safety and sustainability point of view was recalled. These principles are specific to the well-known Sustainable development goal 7 which aims precisely to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. However, according to the Progress towards the SDGs report, despite the efforts that have been made for several decades there is still a long way from achieving this goal. Many European countries are aware of this condition and how important it is to promote policies aimed at increasing the share of renewables. Therefore it is possible to identify many studies that have analyzed possible pathways for this transition (Deane et al., 2015; Graabak et al., 2019; Jäger-Waldau, 2020; Oh et al., 2014; Xunzhang et al., 2017). Among the strategies to achieve these objectives, rules and incentive solutions to support renewables have been widely defined. In Italy the decree of 04.07.2019, known as "FER 1", aims to provide economic support for investments in renewables and it is of interest for this research. It is carried out in the field of photovoltaic solar and shows how the productivity of an integrated photovoltaic system changes, and therefore the economic feasibility, with the variation of: Italian region of location, tilt angle and technology used. The research has developed a methodology based on technical and economic criteria, validated in case studies. From a technical point of view, this methodology takes into consideration all the main variables that affect the productivity of a photovoltaic system. Once the "n" possible scenarios have been defined, the methodological approach provides for economic analyzes to be carried out, performed using the discounted cash flow (DCF) method and calculating net present value (NPV) and discounted payback period (DPBT). Once all the simulations and analyzes have been completed, the approach involves the preparation of a summary matrix of the main results obtained, from a technical point of view and from an economic one. The building chosen as a case study to validate the methodology is located in Central Italy, in the Abruzzo Region and in particular in a place called San Demetrio nè Vestini (Annibaldi et al., 2020). It is a public building of the Municipal Administration, used as a school. In the study, it was decided to repeat the analyzes carried out in Central Italy location, also in Northern Italy, i.e. Milan, and in the South, i.e. Palermo. Regarding the tilt, the three most common angles of inclination have been chosen: 15°, 30° and 45°. In relation to the technology, polycrystalline, monocrystalline and thin film have been used. By crossing these parameters, it was possible to obtain 27 different scenarios. The results obtained show how the profitability of the PV system is verified in 21 out of 27 cases. The greatest profitability is obtained in the case of Southern Italy with a monocrystalline technology and an inclination angle of 30°. Furthermore, any case study located in Southern Italy has greater profitability than the respective case studies located in Northern and Central Italy. This is because the PV plant located in Southern Italy has greater efficiency and therefore greater System Output energy. However, even in the case study located in Southern Italy with thin film technology, the profitability of the plant is not high and the negative cash flows are repaid by positive cash flows at the end of the life of the plant (20 years). For the other case studies located in Northern and Central Italy with a thin film technology, the PV plant will give an economic loss. For the remaining technologies the value of the NPV is always greater than zero, they are therefore profitable investments. This is also confirmed by the DPBT index. In fact, the time required to recover the investment is a maximum of 9 years. However, leaving only the technology to vary, monocrystalline technology leads to greater economic profitability, despite this having a higher investment cost. Finally, with the same technology used and the location of the system, an inclination angle of 30° allows greater economic profitability. This is due exclusively to technical choices that allow the plant output to be maximized. In fact, for an inclination angle of 30° SOE_0 assumes the highest value with the remaining hypotheses being equal. The research illustrated has shown that the FER1 decree is suitable for encouraging photovoltaics especially in the southern regions while it would be desirable that in the northern regions it was more used to encourage other technologies. Furthermore, the illustrated methodology could be used to optimize the process of exploiting renewable energy for better energy performance.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11697/175252
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