ROME (ITALPRESS) – To achieve climate neutrality, as envisaged by the European Green Deal, it is necessary not only to reduce polluting emissions into the atmosphere, but also to increase the use of renewable sources. In Italy, the heating of buildings represents an important share of the total energy consumption. A winning combination of measures and technologies will be needed to achieve the EU’s ambitious decarbonisation targets by 2050. For this Bosch and the Eni Enrico Mattei Foundation have carried out a study that presents an analysis of possible scenarios that compare the penetration of different heating technologies in residential buildings. The analysis focuses, in particular, on hydrogen and the role it plays with respect to other solutions, including heat pumps and renewable natural gas. The results show that a combination of technologies will still be needed in the heating sector, but also that other external factors will be of fundamental importance, including the decarbonisation of electricity and energy efficiency measures on the building stock. Hydrogen may also play a role in the path towards decarbonisation, especially in the long run. With the current trend of replacements and renovations of thermal systems in buildings, Baseline scenario, the residential sector would improve both in terms of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, but would be below the EU target. It is therefore necessary to push, through regulations and structural incentives, towards a growth in replacements with more efficient technologies that use renewable sources. In the second Green Gas scenario, the CO2 reduction target for the residential sector is achieved thanks to the support of the so-called green gases and in particular of renewable hydrogen. The maximum penetrations, hypothesized to date based on the information available and the experience of some of the main stakeholders, of hydrogen and biomethane at 2030, 2040 and 2050 were considered. This “limit” scenario was compared with a third Electrification scenario, in which the CO2 reduction target is achieved by electrifying homes as much as possible, or by heating approximately 2/3 of the users with an electric heat pump. All this combined with an increase in the renewable percentage within electricity production up to 100% in 2050. The last two scenarios present open points. On the one hand, there are major criticisms of electrifying old fossil fuel heating systems, especially with reference to the approximately 10 million condominiums with autonomous heating systems in the cities. On the other hand, it is not certain that clean hydrogen and biomethane will be available, in the quantities hypothesized, for the residential sector. This ignores whether the necessary electricity may or may not be produced from renewable sources and the current natural gas distribution network will be made suitable for the transport of hydrogen, with a parallel adjustment of the regulations. As “limit” scenarios at the moment, from the study it can be assumed that the combination of the various technologies, electric and green gas, will be able to make an essential contribution to achieving the desirable target. (ITALPRESS). ads / com 19-May-21 18:34
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