Solar Hydroelectric Energy: a Challenge for Sustainability and AI/IT-Energy Needs

Abstract

After explaining the reasons why energy is one of the challenges for the future, regardless of human choices in many other fields, the author emphasizes how the entire EU, including Italy, remains highly dependent on energy. Without being able to reject other conventional sources in times of crisis, under penalty of regression and decline, the need to exploit solar energy is thus imperative, despite the volatility of photo-voltaic or wind generation and the resulting risks and constraints to which a highly interconnected electricity grid exposes. This is also reflected in the risks of an isolated or poorly interconnected grid, which requires regulation in the context of the expansion of renewables. The author suggests the reasons for moving toward
”hydro-solar projects” (hydroelectric pumping units powered by large photovoltaic plants), reclaiming areas of compromised, sometimes polluted, or decommissioned land, and in any case not intended for agricultural use. In this context, EU ETSs are therefore seen as a tool that can help pay for these new plants, which exploit renewable energy and constitute remediation measures, as well as potential energy storage and regulation infrastructures serving the energy needs of local communities, also promoting their development. Preliminary and exploratory considerations have led to initial technical, economic, and financial simulations, reported here in tabular and graphical form, which demonstrate the limits of feasibility/bankability in the current context based on expected production costs and grid placement prices; prices still significantly higher than those of
the European market in general. The question therefore arises as to whether land and environmental care and remediation measures, such as the proposed infrastructure measures (electricity grids and new plants to replace old and polluting ones), which have impact on human health, the planet, and its obsolete infrastructure, should be subject to market rules. In this regard, further reflection is needed, also in view of the more demanding energy requirements for the spread of AI/IT and the necessary data centers.