Renewable power sources in coastal areas. A viability assessment in the scope of needs and regulations

The work deals with renewable energy projects, in the context of the evolution of the deregulated energy market. Special attention is focused on renewables and on the actual situation in Italy form the standards and regulations point of view, in terms of promotion and incentives granted to renewable power plants for a wider development of them. The goal is the targeted level of energy production to be extracted from renewable power, as it has been stated by European Countries’ agreements. The installation of a wind farm in a coastal Sardinian area is investigated in view of both electricity and desalinated water production. The convenience of fuelling desalination plants through renewables is investigated by taking into account additional on-side trading instruments such as green certificates, mandatory quota of renewables to be satisfied by energy operators and convenience to fulfill the renewable obligation by the acquisition or by the trading of certificates. A model to simulate the operation of a renewable energy plant is applied to assess the performance of a desalination plant based on a reverse osmosis technology (RO) and driven by wind systems. The economic performance is assessed for a possible installation in Sardinian sites with critical water and energy needs, focusing the attention on the dispatching regulatory policy.