Port as renewable energy hubs: Insights from the Italian case

The application of the concept of energy hub to ports is still scarce both in academic reviews and research analyses as well as in terms of empirical and practical cases. As a result, there is a lack of studies and practical analyses assessing technical solutions for the design of an innovative Port Renewable Energy Hub (PREH), grounding on a range of green strategies (GSs) to effectively manage energy consumption and production in the port. Finally, very limited prior studies provide detailed designs and technical solution when configuring the architecture of the PREH (i.e. PREH configuration).

The manuscript scrutinizes the most relevant opportunities and challenges which ports are expected to experience as PREHs for achieving environmental, economic and financial sustainability goals. A conceptual framework capable to assess available options/investments/interventions for transforming ports in renewable energy hubs is developed and tested on the Italian ports. For the aim of the study, the Moscow method is used to identify, test, and validate the most important components that constitute a successful PREH configuration by applying a stakeholders’ perspective. The empirical results emerging from the analysis of the Italian case show that 36% of green strategies actually planned and implemented by Italian ports are related to energy efficiency interventions, 23% refer to the development of facilities/infrastructures for electric energy supply and 22% of the sample GSs focus on renewable energy sources. From the stakeholder perspective (e.g. PAs, public entity, trade association, university, private companies operating in the port domain), the most important inputs for PREH are solar and wind and the most important outputs are electricity, hydrogen, and heating.