Version 1
: Received: 3 February 2021 / Approved: 4 February 2021 / Online: 4 February 2021 (11:07:19 CET)
Version 2
: Received: 19 March 2021 / Approved: 19 March 2021 / Online: 19 March 2021 (14:41:06 CET)
Raimondi, A.; Bettoni, F.; Bianchi, A.; Becciu, G. Economic Sustainability of Small-Scale Hydroelectric Plants on a National Scale—The Italian Case Study. Water2021, 13, 1170.
Raimondi, A.; Bettoni, F.; Bianchi, A.; Becciu, G. Economic Sustainability of Small-Scale Hydroelectric Plants on a National Scale—The Italian Case Study. Water 2021, 13, 1170.
Raimondi, A.; Bettoni, F.; Bianchi, A.; Becciu, G. Economic Sustainability of Small-Scale Hydroelectric Plants on a National Scale—The Italian Case Study. Water2021, 13, 1170.
Raimondi, A.; Bettoni, F.; Bianchi, A.; Becciu, G. Economic Sustainability of Small-Scale Hydroelectric Plants on a National Scale—The Italian Case Study. Water 2021, 13, 1170.
Abstract
The feasibility of hydroelectric plants depends on a variety of factors: water resource regime, geo-graphical, geological and environmental context, available technology, construction cost and eco-nomic value of produced energy. Choices about the building or renewal of hydroelectric plants should be based on the forecast of the future trend of these factors at least during the project life of the system. Focusing on the economic value of the produced energy this paper examines its influ-ence on the feasibility of hydroelectric plants. Analysis, referred to Italian case, were based on three different phases: i) the economic sustainability of small-scale hydroelectric plants under a minimum price guaranteed to the hydroelectric operator; ii) the estimate of the incentives to reach the thresholds of "acceptability" and "bankability" of the investment; iii) the analysis of results ob-tained in the previous phases using a model of the evolution of the electricity price in the period 2014-2100.
Keywords
economic sustainability; mini hydroelectric plants; tariff; incentive; climate change
Subject
Engineering, Automotive Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.