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The Technologies for the Energy Transition (TET) research programme aims at analyzing the social and economic aspects of technological innovation in the energy sector.

Energy transition is the most pressing priority of our time: only a fully carbon-free energy sector can underpin long-term inclusive growth and resilient societies. A successful transition requires a rapid deployment of new technologies, which, unfortunately, is not within reach. According to the latest IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario, almost 35% of the cumulative emissions reductions by 2070 hinge on technologies that are currently at large prototype or demonstration phase, and around 40% on technologies that are not yet commercially deployed at a large scale. The contribution of technologies at large prototype or demonstration stage to emissions reductions are even higher in heavy industry and long-distance transport, where not commercially available and scalable options for achieving deep emissions reductions exist today. Hence, this decade requires innovative thinking and smart policies to speed-up the deployment of new energy technologies. In the end the trajectory of the energy transition will be determined by:

  • How the cost and technical performances of competing technologies evolve through innovation;
  • How policy makers will regulate and support innovation;
  • How consumers will change their preferences and consumption patterns.

The program will be based on three activities:

  1. Analysis of national hydrogen strategies – NAHyS: The project aims at determining the internal coherence of each national strategies and their level of comparability in terms of ambitions, targets, costs, and policies. The project will provide a final and comprehensive comparison tool;
  2. Modelling energy transition in the Italian electricity and gas system – ITET: the project, taking advantage of the Plexos simulation software, will develop scenarios of decarbonization and transition of the Italian electrical and gas system, quantifying the economic and social impacts for the various stakeholders;
  3. Stochastic cost-benefit analysis for the energy transition – Stoc-CBA: the energy transition requires the management and mitigation of important risks, typical of the innovative process, on the one hand, and the construction of large infrastructures on the other. The project aims to develop an innovative cost-benefit analysis that will make it possible to better assess the risks and their economic consequences, defining a process of optimal allocation of public resources based on more effective indicators,such as the economic value at risk.