A GIS-based model to assess electric energy consumptions and usable renewable energy potential in Lazio region at municipality scale

The ongoing energy transition processes need a rapprochement between the places of energy production and consumption with the aim of creating innovative and integrated territorial models. Consequentially, models and strategies for increasing the use of local and renewable energy sources (RES) play a key rule for enhancing energy independence and sustainability of the considered areas. The main objective of this study is to analyse the energy system of the Lazio Region in Italy, comparing electricity consumptions and production from renewable sources at municipality scale. In order to estimate the electricity consumptions and the local production by RES, the main sectors of electricity consumption together with the potential of the available RES for the electricity production have been analysed. The obtained results pinpointed the main critical aspects of the Lazio region, that are mainly focalized in the city of Rome and in the most densely inhabited municipalities. Furthermore, research outputs provide an overall framework on the regional RES potential and allowed the formulation of proposals aimed at overcoming the identified criticalities and increasing the share of electricity production from renewables. Finally, the research approach could be replicated in other areas, providing a useful process for decision makers and stakeholders

Energy use in residential buildings: Impact of building automation control systems on energy performance and flexibility

This work shows the results of a research activity aimed at characterizing the energy habits of Italian residential users. In detail, by the energy simulation of a buildings sample, the opportunity to implement a demand/response program (DR) has been investigated. Italian residential utilities are poorly electrified and flexible loads are low. The presence of an automation system is an essential requirement for participating in a DR program and, in addition, it can allow important reductions in energy consumption. In this work the characteristics of three control systems have been defined, based on the services incidence on energy consumptions along with a sensitivity analysis on some energy drivers. Using the procedure established by the European Standard EN 15232, the achievable energy and economic savings have been evaluated. Finally, a financial analysis of the investments has been carried out, considering also the incentives provided by the Italian regulations. The payback time is generally not very long: depending on the control system features it varies from 7 to 10 years; moreover, the automation system installation within dwellings is a relatively simple activity, which is characterized by a limited execution times and by an initial expenditure ranging in 1000 € to 4000 €, related to the three sample systems

Prestazioni energetiche degli edifici: le norme UNI TS 11300-3/4

In attuazione della direttiva 2009/28/CE, sulla promozione dell’uso dell’energia da fonte rinnovabile, è stato emanato il Decreto Legislativo n.28 del 3/3/2011. Il decreto fornisce interessanti novità riguardanti i nuovi edifici o gli edifici sottoposti a ristrutturazioni rilevanti, con l’obiettivo di limitare i consumi di energia primaria dell’edificio attraverso sistemi edificio-impianti efficienti ed impiegando fonti rinnovabili di energia. Le prescrizioni contenute devono intendersi come requisito minimo, su tutto il territorio nazionale, con la conseguenza che tutti gli atti normativi regionali o comunali devono essere adeguati entro 180 giorni a quanto indicato. Per la prima volta, tra gli usi energetici dell’edificio, in termini di energia primaria, è inclusa la climatizzazione estiva, che dovrà essere in parte soddisfatta tramite il ricorso a fonti rinnovabili di energia. La norma UNI TS 11300-3 specifica le modalità di calcolo del fabbisogno di energia primaria e dei rendimenti per la stagione estiva; l’applicazione di tale norma sarà di seguito illustrata con riferimento a casi specifici, evidenziandone i punti salienti ed alcune criticità. Il decreto, inoltre, stabilisce che “energia da fonti rinnovabili” è l’energia proveniente da fonti rinnovabili non fossili, vale a dire energia eolica, solare, aerotermica, geotermica, idrotermica e oceanica, idraulica, biomassa, gas di discarica, gas dai processi di depurazione e biogas. La norma UNI TS 11300-4 riguarda l’utilizzo di energie rinnovabili e di altri metodi di generazione per riscaldamento di ambienti e preparazione acqua calda sanitaria; tale norma sarà nel seguito illustrata con riferimento alle parti ritenute più interessanti. Altra novità del decreto è il ruolo del teleriscaldamento, equiparato alle fonti rinnovabili, nel momento in cui consente il pieno soddisfacimento dei fabbisogni per riscaldamento ed acqua calda sanitaria. Il calcolo per il teleriscaldamento può essere effettuato mediante la UNI TS 11300-4

Cogenerazione integrata in un sistema ibrido con motore ad idrometano per un impianto natatorio

L’oggetto del presente studio è un impianto di cogenerazione alimentato ad idrometano asservito alla gestione termica di una piscina costruita all’interno del centro sportivo universitario di Tor di Quinto. Il laboratorio di sperimentazione connesso alla realizzazione di tale impianto ha come obiettivi la promozione di sistemi innovativi per la gestione energetica ed economica dell’Ateneo e la sostenibilità ambientale all’interno di una grande città come Roma. Di fatto, tale laboratorio si configura come uno dei nuovi centri di autoproduzione facente capo alla smart grid della Sapienza costituendo il primo sistema ibrido realizzato in Italia che impiega, in modo sinergico e razionale, le tecnologie della cogenerazione, del fotovoltaico e della produzione di idrogeno a bassa pressione ( 15 bar ) mediante processo elettrolitico. A partire dai risultati ottenuti da uno studio di fattibilità sulla piscina si è determinata la taglia di 60 kW elettrici per il cogeneratore. Per l’ alimentazione del motore a combustione interna è stata prevista la possibilità di operare con gas metano al 100 %, oppure con una miscela arricchita di idrogeno di composizione modulabile ( nel range 0 - 10 % in volume ) mediante interposizione di un buffer di disaccoppiamento (capacità: 60 litri) ed apposita apparecchiatura miscelatrice. L’idrogeno viene prodotto da un elettrolizzatore alcalino (potenzialità: 1.1 Nm3/h ) che assorbe una potenza elettrica di 5.5 kW in parte dalla rete e in parte da un impianto fotovoltaico (6 kW) grid - connected totalmente integrato in facciata di una palazzina adiacente. Con il completamento dell’installazione del sistema di analisi fumi in continuo sarà possibile effettuare i test sul motore e valutare le prestazioni energetiche ed ambientali dell’intero sistema ibrid

How the italian residential sector could contribute to load flexibility in demand response activities: a methodology for residential clustering and developing a flexibility strategy

This work aims at exploring the potential contribution of the Italian residential sector in implementing load flexibility for Demand Response activities. In detail, by combining experimental and statistical approaches, a method to estimate the load profile of a dwelling cluster of 751 units has been presented. To do so, 14 dwelling archetypes have been defined and the algorithm to categorise the sample units has been built. Then, once the potential flexible loads for each archetype have been evaluated, a control strategy for applying load time shifting has been implemented. That strategy accounts for both the power demand profile and the hourly electricity price. Specifically, it has been assumed that end users access a pricing mechanism following the hourly trend of electricity economic value, which is traded day by day in the Italian spot market, instead of the current Time of Use (TOU) system. In such a way, it is possible to flatten the dwellings cluster profile, limiting undesired and unexpected results on the balancing market. In the end, monthly and yearly flexibility indexes have been defined along with the strategy effectiveness parameter. From calculations, it emerges that a dwelling cluster for the Italian residential sector is characterised by a flexibility index of 10.3% and by a strategy effectiveness equal to 34%. It is noteworthy that the highest values for flexibility purpose have been registered over the heating season (winter) for the weekends

Updates after the Near-Earth Commissioning Phase of Italian Spring Accelerometer – ISA

AbstractISA (Italian Spring Accelerometer) is a high sensitivity accelerometer flying, as scientific payload, on-board one of the two spacecraft (the Mercury Planetary Orbiter) of BepiColombo, the first ESA mission to Mercury. The first commissioning phase (performed in the period November 2018 - August 2019) allowed to verify the functionality of the instrument itself as well as of the related data handling and archiving system. Moreover, the acceleration measurements gathered in this time frame allow to envisage the potentiality of such an instrument as a high-accuracy monitor of the spacecraft mechanical environment

The Galileo for science (G4S 2.0) project. Measurement of the gravitational redshift with the Galileo satellites DORESA and MILENA

The G4S 2.0 project represents an important opportunity to perform fundamental physics measurements with the two Galileo-FOC satellites DORESA and MILENA in elliptic orbits. In this paper, we discuss the possibility to improve the current constraints on local position invariance via a new measurement of the gravitational redshift, taking into account both a new model of the satellites and more in-depth considerations on non-gravitational perturbations

Detecting the gravito-magnetic field of the dark halo of the Milky Way - the LaDaHaD mission concept

We propose to locate transponders and atomic clocks in at least three of the Lagrange points of the Sun-Earth pair, with the aim of exploiting the time of flight asymme- try between electromagnetic signals travelling in opposite directions along polygonal loops having the Lagrange points at their vertices. The asymmetry is due to the pres- ence of a gravito-magnetic field partly caused by the angular momentum of the Sun, partly originating from the angular momentum of the galactic dark halo in which the Milky Way is embedded. We list also various opportunities which could be associated with the main objective of this Lagrange Dark Halo Detector (LaDaHaD)

IXPE Mission System Concept and Development Status

The Goal of the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Mi SMEX), is to expand understanding of high-energy astrophysical processes and sources, in support of NASAs first science objective in Astrophysics: Discover how the universe works. IXPE, an international collaboration, will conduct X-ray imaging polarimetry for multiple categories of cosmic X-ray sources such as neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, supernova remnants and active galactic nuclei. The Observatory uses a single science operational mode capturing the X-ray data from the targets. The IXPE Observatory consists of spacecraft and payload modules built up in parallel to form the Observatory during system integration and test. The payload includes three X-ray telescopes each consisting of a polarization-sensitive, gas pixel X-ray detector, paired with its corresponding grazing incidence mirror module assembly (MMA). A deployable boom provides the correct separation (focal length) between the detector units (DU) and MMAs. These payload elements are supported by the IXPE spacecraft which is derived from the BCP-small spacecraft architecture. This paper summarizes the IXPE mission science objectives, updates the Observatory implementation concept including the payload and spacecraft ts and summarizes the mission status since last years conference

The visible and near infrared module of EChO

The Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) is one of the modules of EChO, the Exoplanets Characterization Observatory proposed to ESA for an M-class mission. EChO is aimed to observe planets while transiting by their suns. Then the instrument had to be designed to assure a high efficiency over the whole spectral range. In fact, it has to be able to observe stars with an apparent magnitude Mv = 9-12 and to see contrasts of the order of 10-4-10-5 necessary to reveal the characteristics of the atmospheres of the exoplanets under investigation. VNIR is a spectrometer in a cross-dispersed configuration, covering the 0.4-2.5 μm spectral range with a resolving power of about 330 and a field of view of 2 arcsec. It is functionally split into two channels respectively working in the 0.4-1.0 μm and 1.0-2.5 μm spectral ranges. Such a solution is imposed by the fact the light at short wavelengths has to be shared with the EChO Fine Guiding System (FGS) devoted to the pointing of the stars under observation. The spectrometer makes use of a HgCdTe detector of 512 by 512 pixels, 18 μm pitch and working at a temperature of 45 K as the entire VNIR optical bench. The instrument has been interfaced to the telescope optics by two optical fibers, one per channel, to assure an easier coupling and an easier colocation of the instrument inside the EChO optical bench. <P /