An assessment of the potential and sustainability of Renewable Energy Sources in Friuli Venezia Giulia

In reference to the current energy strategy of the EU, that favours a "neutral" approach to energy source, the aim of the work was to understand which renewable energy sources (RES) and related technologies may best contribute to address the "energy problem", with particular reference to biomass (biofuels, biogas and biomass for combustion), in the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.The results indicated that Hydropower, Wind power, Solar PV (all roofs), Solar PV (parks), and Biogas could replace 30.6% of current gross energy consumption, with Wood heating contributing to an additional 7.1%. Assuming that Energy saving might still reduce total consumption by 26%, the sum of all RES (transport biofuels excluded) would amount to 50.9% of future gross energy inputs. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.