Abstract

Starting from the 70s, renewable electrical power covered less that 10% production in Italy almost entirely via hydropower; from the beginning of the new millennium, a slow, but significant increase has started, with the introduction of other renewable sources in our national market.

The penetration of renewables increased quite rapidly and today more than 40% (about 60,000 MW) of EE is produced as result of the combination of solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy and geothermal initiatives.

For several social, economic, political reasons, with the beginning of the third decade of ‘00s, Italy has entered in a new “boom” of renewables: for the first time, big-sized offshore wind farms (5-10x the greatest onshore national plants, up to almost 3 GW) are now making their first appearances in the Mediterranean area; major energy players are actively proceeding to develop projects for integral reconstructions of existing solar and wind power plants, according to a principle of balancing reduction of environmental impacts with capacity enhancement (e.g., 50% fewer turbines, 300-500% more installed capacity).

But this extraordinary growth, especially in view of the expected and hoped-for ecological transition, must consider the major issues associated with the world of renewable energy: first and foremost, as easily understandable, sun doesn’t shine and wind doesn’t blow according to power needs, so that the challenge in the energy transition through renewable sources if finding the way to have a sufficient power storage capacity.

Power storage can be achieved through different ways, but in accordance with the renewable trend described above, one of the most interesting solutions is represented by hydro-pumping storages: hydroelectric storage systems mainly based on two water reservoirs at different elevation, linked by a pipeline. Such configuration allows, according to the need, to generate power through a turbine, by moving water to the lower reservoir (discharge) and require power by pumping water back into the upper reservoir (recharge), working just like a rechargeable battery, but without the need to use rare earths and metals that are nonrenewable, costly, and potentially associated with significant environmental concerns

As per usual, keeping apart technical and market aspects (that in any case play a significant role), RINA has been maturing a significant expertise also in the environmental permitting related topics, that – as per usual – are one of the key factors in the initiatives’ development.

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