Oil depletion

High oil price

Air quality Energy security

Global warming SUSTAINABILITY

ENERGY SYSTEM: NEW DRIVING FORCE

OIL DEPLECTION

Before oil is exhausted, it will reach a pruduction peak;

this peak can be described as the highest pruduction level in the history of oil, then a structural decline will start;

it is important to determine the period in which this peaking will occur, in order to implement mitigating measures;

Predicting the exact timing of peak is a difficoult task due to the lack of reliable data.

OIL DEPLETION

HIGH OIL PRICE

One major effect is that natural disasters will worsen for example as hurricanes and droughts will become deadly. If people don't react soon and take action the world will suffer.

GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming is a global issue that involves everything and everyone.

The main reason for global warming is something that is called the Greenhouse effect, which is when a gas called CO2 or also known as carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and with which the sun’s rays inevitably cause the Earth to warm up.

ENERGY SECURITY

A degree of self-sufficiency in energy production is seen as essential to mantain economic and social stability as well as future prosperity.

AIR QUALITY

Air quality is defined as an indication of the condition of air relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and/or to any human need or purpose.

Air quality indices (AQI) are numbers used by government agencies to characterize the quality of the air at a given location.

THE ITALIAN ENERGY POLICY

market liberalisation;

diversification of energy sources;

transfer of power to the regional authorities;

energy security;

energy efficency;

environmental protection.

THE ITALIAN ENERGY POLICY

The Italian energy mix majorly relies on oil and gas imports.

Oil utilization is gradually decreasing, while gas and renewable energies are registering a trend of growth.

Shares in energy production %

Oil 43.1

Gas 36

Solid fuel 8.6

Renewables 6.8

Electricity (imports) 5.5

THE ITALIAN ENERGY POLICY

Final energy uses registered an increase in line with the GDP increase but with different trends in the different sectors. The transport sector, in particular, showed a relevant trend of increase.

Sector %

Industry 28

Sector 30

Residential/services 32.1

Others 9.9

THE ITALIAN ENERGY POLICYThe Italian power generation and industry sector is pretty unique compared to those of most industrialised countries. This is due to the following characteristics:

electricity demand is growing very strongly despite a weak level of economic activity; this is due to the increase in electricity consumption in the residential and industrial sector from the current relatively low levels.

Italy has a high dependency on natural gas and fuel oil; these two fuels have the disadvantage of having prices linked to those of crude oil, which has increased dramatically in the last three years.

Italy has a very high dependency on electricity imports with respect to other industrialised countries, with a share of 14% of gross electricity consumption coming from abroad.

Italy has a low level of consumption of coal and the complete absence of nuclear.

THE ITALIAN ENERGY POLICY

1981- Law 308/82 The first National Energy Plan was elaborated- address the issues of energy efficiency and renewable energies and basis for future public regulations and financial incentives.

1988- A second National Energy Plan was elaborated- five objectives for the year 2000: 1.implementation of policies of energy saving and rational use of energy; 2. protection of environmental and human health; 3.development of energy sources; 4. utilization of mixed energy sources and different geopolitical supplies; 5. improvement of competitivness of the production systems.

1999- Italy adopted the European Commission’s White paper on renewbles-This document gave the state of art of R.E.technologies and indicated policies, strategies and production targets up to 2008-2012 for each type of sources.

THE ITALIAN ENERGY POLICY

THE ITALIAN ENERGY POLICY

Currently, support for renewble energy is based on:

1. Green certificates for energy production.

2. national and regional financial contribution.

3. Fiscal incentives.

4. RECS and certification

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HYDROPOWER

The hydroelectric power plant converts the hydraulic energy of a watercourse, natural or artificial, into electricity.

Through works of water supply, canals and tunnels branch water is then piped into tanks and loaded, through penstocks, turbines through the inlet valves (safety) and regulating the flow (distributors) according to the application for 'energy.

The alternator is directly connected to the turbine which is installed in accordance with a provision for vertical or horizontal axis. It is basically a rotating electrical machine capable of transforming mechanical energy into electrical energy received from the turbine

The electricity thus obtained must be transformed to be transmitted over long distances.Therefore, before being conveyed to transmission lines, the electricity passes through the transformer, which lowers the intensity of the current produced by the alternator, however, by raising the voltage to thousands of volts.

On arrival at the place of employment, before being used, the energy passes back into a transformer that this time, raises the current density and lowers the voltage so as to make it suitable for domestic use.

GEOTHERMAL

Geothermal energy uses the Earth's internal heat, generated in part during the formation of the planet and in part by the decay of radioactive isotopes in the mantle.

A geothermal power plant consists of an area where the presence of hot fluids has been detected, with depths varying from 60 to 3000 meters from which the vapor present at high temperatures (150-250 °) is extracted by drilling and then conveyed in a pipeline

The energy possessed by water, allowed to expand in a turbine coupled to a generator, it is first converted into mechanical energy and then into electricity. The exhausted steam is piped to the condenser, where it is converted to water at high temperature, which passes into the cooling tower, where it is cooled and injected underground.

The transformation of geothermal energy into electricity can be obtained with different technologies depending on the temperature and pressure of the hydrothermal system

BIOMASS

Biomass is a collection of materials of plant origin, waste from agriculture, livestock, or reused in suitable timber industry power stations to produce electricity.

COMBUSTIONwhere all the carbon in the fuel is totally transformed into carbon dioxide and where the only product is heat. The heat from the combustion process can be used directly or for power production.

GASIFICATIONIs a process where the fuel is partially oxidised and the product is a fuel gas consisting of CO, CO2, H2, CH4, H2O and N2. This fuel gas can be utilized in an engine, gas turbine or boiler for heat and power production.

PYROLISISConsists in the heating up of the fuel in the absence of oxygen. The product from this process is charcoal, pyrolysis oil and a fuel gas. The pyrolysis oil can be utilized as a fuel for vehicles or for power production via engine or gas turbines.

WIND POWER

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity. The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources. Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuel, is plentiful, widely distributed, clean, and produces no greenhouse emissions.

WIND ENERGY PRODUCTION

SOLAR -FOTHOVOLTAIC

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaic(PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using photoelectricity.

PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECTThe photovoltaic effect is the creation of a voltage (or a corresponding electric current) in a material upon exposure to light. Though the photovoltaic effect is directly related to the photoelectric effect, the two processes are different and should be distinguished In the photoelectric effect, electrons are ejected from a material's surface upon exposure to radiation of sufficient energy. The photovoltaic effect is different in that the generated electrons are transferred between different bands (i.e., from the valence to conduction bands) within the material, resulting in the buildup of a voltage between two electrodes.

SOLAR CELLSSolar cells produce direct current electricity from sun light, which can be used to power equipment or to recharge a battery. The first practical application of photovoltaics was to power orbiting satellites and other spacecraft, but today the majority of photovoltaic modules are used for gridconnected power generation. In this case an inverter is required to convert the DC to AC.

SOLAR PANELS

Photovoltaic panels based on crystalline silicon modules are being partially replaced in the market by panels that employ thin-film solar cells amorphous Si, microcrystalline Si), which are rapidly growing and are expected to account for 31 percent of the global installedpower by 2013.Other developments include casting wafers instead of sawing-concentrator modules, 'Sliver' cells, and continuous printing processes. Due to economies of scale solar panels get less costly as people use and buy more — as manufacturers increase production to meet demands, the cost and price is expected to drop in the years to come.

Renewable Energy Systems: Development and Perspectives of a Hybrid Solar-Wind System

•PV modules and wind turbines are now widely used in developed countries to produce electrical power in locations where it might be inconvenient or expensive to use conventional grid supplies, while other homeowners who choose the renewable energy sources prefer to connect their energy system to the grid as a huge ‘battery’ for someconvenient grid-tied situation.

• However, when electricity grids are non-existent or rudimentary, all forms of energy can prove very expensive. In such cases, solar and wind energy can be highly competitive.

• The fact that natural energy resources are intermittent and storage batteries are expensive, has led to the utilization of so-called hybrid renewable energy systems.

HYBRID RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS

As both wind and solar energy sources are inconsistent and non-stable. Hybridizing solar and wind power sources together with storage batteries to cover the periods of time without sun or wind provides a stable form of power generation.

Photovoltaic or PV cells, known commonly as solar cells, convert the energy from sunlight into DC electricity. PVs offer added advantages over other renewable energy sources in that they give off no noise and require insignificant maintenance.

A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity (DC), the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or pumping water, the device is called a wiindmill or wind punp.

HYBRID RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS

Wind-turbines and PV cells provide DC but most industrial uses of electricity require AC power. A semiconductor-based device known as a power inverter is used to convert the DC to AC.

HYBRID RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS

PV-SYSTEM

5 Solar Phtotovoltaic panels wired in series

Written by: Comenius Italian’s GroupIstituto Isa Conti Eller VainicherLipari - ME