Energy from waste

waste for energy
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The role of waste incineration with energy recovery and landfill biogas in a mitigation policy context is the focus of the article “Energy from waste: generation potential and mitigation opportunity”, written by CMCC scientists  Francesco Bosello, Lorenza Campagnolo, Fabio Eboli and Ramiro Parrado and recently published in the international magazine Environmental Economics and Policy Studies.

Albeit in the near future WtE (waste incineration with energy recovery) and landfill biogas will continue to represent a limited share of energy inputs in electricity sector, authors write, they could play a role in a mitigation policy context.

According to the research, that started in the context of the CMCC research project E=mc2 – Energy from waste: an assessment of the contribution to climate change mitigation policies in Italy, “the GDP cost of the EU emission reduction target for the Italian economy can be reduced by 1 % when the two energy generating options are available. In absolute terms, this translates into an annuitized value of 87–122 million €”.

The full version of the paper Energy from waste: generation potential and mitigation opportunity (Francesco Bosello, Lorenza Campagnolo, Fabio Eboli and Ramiro Parrado) at Environmental Economics and Policy Studies website.

The abstract of the paper

The present research proposes a macroeconomic assessment of the role of waste incineration with energy recovery (WtE) and controlled landfill biogas to electricity generation and their potential contribution to a CO2 emission reduction policy, within a recursive-dynamic computable general equilibrium model. From the modeling viewpoint, introducing these energy sectors in such a framework required both the extension of the GTAP7 database and the improvement of the ICES production nested function. We focus our analysis on Italy as a signatory of the GHG reduction commitment of 20 % by 2020 with respect to 1990 levels proposed by the European Community; the rest of the world is represented by 21 geo-political countries/regions. It is shown that albeit in the near future WtE and landfill biogas will continue to represent a limited share of energy inputs in electricity sector (in Italy, around 2 % for WtE and 0.6 % for biogas in 2020), and they could play a role in a mitigation policy context. The GDP cost of the EU emission reduction target for the Italian economy can indeed be reduced by 1 % when the two energy generating options are available. In absolute terms, this translates into an annuitized value of 87–122 million €.

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