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Ski resorts are becoming perfect demonstrations for the integration of renewable sources. Moreover, the ever-growing global fleet of electric cars (EV) and the increase of battery capacities allow the vehicles to be used for purposes other than driving. This paper aims to study the implementation of a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) application and the development of an MPC-based energy management system (EMS) within a ski resort in the Trentino-Alto Adige Italian region. Using real data for load and production power estimation, the study analyses the economic and environmental impact in three different scenarios by considering the resort’s future trends. The results show that photovoltaic power generation has a significant impact on both cost and environmental aspects, leading to a reduction in total expenditure and CO2 of about 7%. However, assuming an increasing number of charging stations, the exploitation of V2G technology for energy arbitrage does not lead to significant total cost and CO2 reductions (~2%) for the future scenarios. Conversely, self-consumption improves (~100%) using different charging strategies. Despite this, a sensitivity analysis on PV production and a joint increase in EVs and energy price gap leads to a significant reduction in total costs of up to 7.7% and 15.2%, respectively.

This paper discusses a policy enacted in 2016 by the city of Florence mandating the use of electric vehicles for the taxi service. We interviewed the taxi license owners (carriers), their co-operatives and the city administrators to evaluate the policy implementation, its acceptability and the cost-competitiveness of electric taxis (e-taxis) with respect to their hybrid and diesel alternatives. Using the data collected during the interviews, we estimated the total cost of ownership (TCO) of e-taxis and their conventional counterparts for the models comprising the Florence taxi fleet. We find that e-taxis already represent a valid alternative to the conventional ones not only from an environmental point of view but also from a private economic one. In particular, when the Florence-specific discounted purchase prices are considered and the base case scenario applies, e-taxis are the cheapest choice in terms of TCO and no financial incentives are needed. When the manufacturer suggested retail prices are considered, e-taxis are slightly less cost-competitive than hybrid taxis but more cost-competitive than the diesel ones. Sensitivity analyses are performed to evaluate the impact of the annual distance travelled, Ecobonus purchase subsidy, net revenue loss, annual percentage rate charged to finance the taxi acquisition and insurance premium.

The paper has two main goals: to draw a summary picture of the progress made towards transport decarbonisation in Europe, and to identify future developments concerning the 2020–2030 decade. The analysis is based on the 4th and 5th reports prepared by the Member States under the obligation Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) and on the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) for the 2020–2030 decade, paying specific attention to the use of renewables in the transport sector. We find that the Member States rely on two strategies: increasing the production and use of biofuels, especially those produced by advanced materials, and supporting the diffusion of electric vehicles. Performing a scenario analysis capturing the planned policies and goals indicated in the NECPs, we estimate that the biofuel strategy can deliver a GHG reduction of up to 19 MtCO2eq (−3.6%), while the electrification strategy can deliver a GHG reduction up to 45 MtCO2eq (−8.3%). Jointly used, the GHG reduction could reach up to 64 MtCO2eq (−11.9%).

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel patterns, use of space and modal choice. Cities took actions in a way they did not before, trying to accommodate economic and travel needs with the goal of reducing the spreading of the virus. Active travel (AT) played an important role in accommodating travel needs and in increasing the resilience and environmental friendliness of the urban transport system. As cities gradually return to their normal life, transport planners must decide which role to assign to AT in future urban plans. In particular, whether to confirm the temporary policies incentivising AT enacted to counteract the reduction in the use of public transport or to return to the previous road space allocation that dedicated considerable urban space to motorised vehicular traffic. After reviewing the empirical evidence on the AT evolution during the various pandemic phases and illustrating the main policies planned and implemented at city level in many countries, this chapter summarises the lessons learnt, derives some policy suggestions, and identifies future research needs.

Active commuting to school has significant positive health and environmental impacts; however, the increasing use of private vehicles has transformed school commuting from an active to a passive activity. Our research is aimed at analyzing which factors influence the choice on how to commute to school with a special focus on the role played by the Covid-19 health emergency. We carried out an online survey involving a sample of 193 students of a middle school of Trieste (Italy) and 217 parents. We find that attitudes and perceptions of children and parents significantly differ with respect to both the risks and benefits of different means of transportation and with respect to the policies that should be implemented to support active commuting to school. Our study is innovative with respect to the age range we focused on, since most of the literature deals with young children (elementary school) or with adolescents (high school) whose modal choice are taken either by their parents or by the students themselves. With reference to middle school students, instead, it is expected that children and parents jointly take the choice on how to commute and it is relevant to detect the role played by each family member in the decision-making process. Our results will be useful to local administrators, policy-makers and decision-makers in order to design, implement and support transport and demand management policies that are effective in shifting the mobility habits of middle school students toward healthier and more sustainable means of transportation.

The paper illustrates a stated choice experiment aimed at understanding the main factors influencing the choice between electric and petrol scooters in Italy. A discrete choice modelling framework is used to assess the role played by the scooter's technical and financial attributes, and the respondents' socio-demographic variables. We performed a stated choice experiment with 518 respondents living in various Italian cities including Rome and Milan, where an electric scooter sharing service is active. We find that purchase price, fuel economy, annual cost of circulation tax and insurance premium, driving range, engine power, manufacturer's country and removable battery are consistently statistically significant across the different specifications. The electric scooter, however, is still characterized by a negative alternative specific constant, signaling a ceteris paribus negative perception relative to the conventional one. Although the national and local governments have undertaken actions to support electric scooters' uptake, the current consumers' preferences indicate that in Italy several non-monetary factors and a still inadequate supply limit the chances that electric scooters will extend significantly their market share.

The paper investigates the cost competitiveness of electric light commercial vehicles (eLCVs) with respect to their petrol and diesel counterparts. We develop a detailed total cost of ownership (TCO) model incorporating all relevant costs with special attention to account for variations in engine efficiency between urban and sub-urban trips and by seasons of the year. The model generates two metrics: the threshold purchase price and the threshold annual distance travelled, which are used to compare among propulsion systems and to perform policy scenarios. The model is applied to a large selection of LCVs models available in Europe as of June 2019. We find that eLCVs have on average a higher TCO/km than their conventional counterparts. Yet, the existing offer of eLCVs is differentiated and some eLCV models are cost competitive. We find that four eLCV models belonging to the city and panel segments are convenient relative to their diesel counterparts for daily distances travelled lower than 93 km. Nonetheless, with financial and regulatory incentives, 100% urban driving, and 100% home/depot charging, most of the existing city and panel eLCV models are cost competitive with respect to both their diesel and petrol counterparts.

We report the results of a stated preference study (N = 1,934) carried out at the end of 2018 on consumers’ choices between electric cars and petrol cars in Italy and Slovenia. We estimate a hybrid mixed logit model that takes into account vehicle, infrastructure and policy attributes and two attitudinal attributes, i.e. environmental awareness and electric car knowledge. We find that purchase price and driving range play a crucial role in consumers’ decisions in both countries, whereas charging time is not statistically significant. Comparing the two countries, price sensitivity is relatively stronger in Italy, while the sensitivity for driving range and fuel economy is relatively stronger in Slovenia. Of the two latent variables we tested, we find that only environmental awareness has a statistically significant positive impact on the choice of electric cars and that it is stronger for Italians compared to Slovenians. The structural component of this latent variable indicates that women are more concerned about the environment than men, but only for the Slovenian subsample. Surprisingly, no statistically significant relationship is found between environmental awareness and age. Younger respondents are as concerned as older ones about the environment both in Italy and in Slovenia.

As electric vehicles gain acceptance, an increasing number of households consider the possibility of buying the bundle including an electric car, a photovoltaic system, and a battery storage unit. Apart from the attractive environmental benefits, a relevant uncertainty concerns the economic convenience of such a choice. Since many variables play a role, we set up a total cost of ownership model to evaluate whether, and under which conditions, the bundle is cost-competitive relative to buying an electric car only (and charging it from the electrical grid) or a conventional combustion engine car. By combining, for the first time, such an economic model with an energy model and a driving profile model, we find that the degree of electricity self-production used to charge the electric car might be very high, varying from 90% to 62%, depending on the annual distance traveled. The cost of such electricity varies widely and can be lower than the grid electricity price when fiscal incentives are available and for long annual distances traveled. A smart charging practice based on both economic factors and weather forecast can greatly enhance self-sufficiency, i.e., independence from the electrical grid. We estimate that, given the current Italian financial incentives, 10,000 km/year are needed to make the electric car cost-competitive with respect to an equivalent petrol-fueled one. Such threshold increases to more than 25,000 km/year if financial incentives are removed.

So far, Italy has shown a much lower electric vehicle (EV) adoption rate than other European countries. In an effort to understand the motivations for the limited but growing EV uptake, this paper focuses on Italian drivers’ preferences resulting from a stated preference survey carried out in October-December 2018. This paper complements the international literature and updates previous Italian surveys administered by the authors in the past years (Valeri and Danielis, 2015; Giansoldati et al., 2018). The econometric analysis of the stated choices confirms that the vehicle attributes such as purchase price, fuel economy, and driving range play a very relevant role. The time spent to charge the vehicle affects negatively the respondents’ utility, while the fast charging network density is not yet perceived as significant or carries a counter-intuitive sign. On the contrary, the possibility to park EVs for free, even for a limited time, in the city central areas is positively valued by the respondents. Comparing our estimates with previous Italian studies, in particular with Giansoldati et al. (2018) who uses a similar questionnaire but on an earlier and more limited sample, there are hints of a change in the perception of the Italian drivers towards EVs. A noticeable difference is the value of the EV alternative specific constant. Giansoldati et al. (2018) find a negative value while this study finds a positive one. A second finding is that the willingness to pay for an additional driving range kilometre is lower than that previously found, indicating that Italian drivers are becoming more confident on EV driving range. Scenario analysis indicates that in Italy financial incentives would have a larger impact on the probability of buying an EV than technological improvements.

The paper quantifies the importance for cost competitiveness of fully electric cars (BEVs) of three determinants of the total cost of ownership (TCO): the annual distance travelled (ADT), the percentage of urban trips, and the availability of a private parking space. The estimates are performed with reference to the Italian car market. We find that charging at home increases the break-even BEV manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) relative to other propulsion systems by €2866-11,466, depending on the ADT. Driving in urban areas increases the break-even BEV MSRP by €910-10,314, depending on the ADT and on the referenced propulsion system. Taking into account the share of Italian drivers who own a garage and drive in urban areas, we find the cheapest BEVs are cost competitive without a subsidy with respect to the HEVs for 11.8% of the Italian drivers, but not with respect to the diesel and petrol cars, unless extremely high annual distances are driven. With the purchase subsidy recently introduced by the Italian government, the cheapest BEVs become competitive also with respect to the diesel cars, but not relative to the petrol cars, unless more than 12,500 km are annually driven.

We present the results of a stated preference study undertaken in Italy in 2017 on individuals’ preferences between an electric car (EC) and a petrol car, with the purpose of assessing the impact of the latent variable EC knowledge on purchasing decisions. We estimate a multinomial, a mixed and two hybrid mixed logit models, with the interaction between EC knowledge, car attributes and additional exogenous covariates. We use three measurement equations to estimate the self-assessed car knowledge, assessed EC knowledge and EC driving experience. We report three main findings. First, the inclusion of EC knowledge improves our capability to explain car choice. Second, the degree of EC knowledge does not change the negative perception respondents have, ceteris paribus, on ECs. Third, the level of EC knowledge influences the importance placed on the attributes of the choice model. Specifically, a higher level of EC knowledge is associated with a lower concern with fast charging station density. Our results are useful for car manufacturers who wish to improve their marketing strategies through tailored advertising efforts, and for policy makers who wish to implement educational campaigns as a means to foster EC uptake.

The aviation industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in producing carbon emissions. In order to reduce its carbon footprint and to respond to the increasing number of people concerned about the impact caused by air transport on climate change, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has recently passed the “carbon neutral growth from 2020” resolution requiring that the global net CO2 emissions from international aviation do not exceed the 2019–2020 levels. Airlines, however, can act beyond their obligations under the ICAO resolution investing in projects aimed at reducing or offsetting all the emissions produced not only by their international flights but also by their domestic flights. The aim of this paper is to test whether Italian air travellers would be willing to donate a contribution to finance these projects and whether the willingness to pay depends on the projects’ type and on the projects’ effectiveness. To this aim we performed a stated-choice experiment involving a sample of 1228 Italians who travelled by plane at least once in the last 3 years. We find that their willingness to pay ranges from €12 to €38 per ton and from €14 to €66 per flight. The description of the project type to be financed via the passengers’ donations is one of the most important factors influencing their willingness to pay. Other key factors are the quantity of CO2 reduced or offset via the project and the respondents’ gender, education degree, occupational status, environmental consciousness and travel habits. Our results are useful for airlines to design the donation proposals and improve the corporate image and for policy makers to support air travellers’ environmental conscious behaviour and airlines’ environmental sustainable strategies.

We perform a meta-analysis of the studies that evaluate the importance attributed by the consumers to the driving range of the Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The paper updates and extends the paper by Dimitropoulos et al. (2013), including primary studies up to the year 2018. It tests whether the conclusions drawn by Dimitropoulos et al. (2013) still hold true given the many changes that occurred in the last years concerning BEVS’ uptake in the market, growing consumers’ direct and indirect experience with electric cars, vehicles’ increased range, and growing diffusion of the charging infrastructure. We carried out two analyses : a) the estimation of the summary effect size of the driving range utility coefficient, and b) a meta-regression of the willingness-to-pay for a 1-km increase in the BEVs’ driving range. The main findings are that : a) the importance attributed to the BEVs’ range by the consumers has not decreased ; b) there is a very large dispersion of the estimates around the mean values, implying that there is a large heterogeneity due to differences in respondents’ needs, vehicle segments and modelling techniques. The meta-regression allowed us to further explore and test statistically these conclusions.

Italy has a very low level of uptake of electric cars (ECs), equal to 0.6% for the year 2019, despite significant efforts put in place by policy makers to stimulate their use. This paper investigates the barriers to wider EC diffusion via a survey administered in 2019 to a representative sample (N = 870) of the Italian population. We discuss and rank the barriers, aggregate them via principal component analysis (PCA) on the basis of the polychoric correlation matrix, perform a cluster analysis and analyse the socio-economic determinants of the respondents. The findings of this paper suggest a series of improvements that could be made by various actors. To overcome the financial barriers to EC uptake, Italian policy makers should reinforce incentives at the national and local levels and car manufacturers should bring to the market cheaper ECs belonging to the A and B segments. The charging-related barriers require investments on fast charging stations along the main toll highways and a new regulation regarding multi-house dwellings. Finally, reliable and complete information is needed to enhance knowledge about the technological and environmental pros and cons of ECs.

The aim of this paper is to estimate whether there exists a total cost of ownership (TCO) gap between electric and petrol cars and what are its main determinants. The paper applies a deterministic and probabilistic model to compare three of the best-selling electric cars in Italy relative to their petrol equivalents : the Nissan Leaf, the Smart ED and the Renault Zoe, relative to the Nissan Pulsar, Smart Forfour and Renault Clio. Adopting a persona-based approach, four stylized Personae are described, differing in terms of place of residence, the percentage of urban trips, garage availability and annual kilometres travelled. In order to gain an idea of how large is the section of the Italian population that would find electric cars TCO competitive, we use data on 657 drivers’ characteristics residing in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. We find that with the current purchase subsidy the Nissan Leaf is TCO competitive relative to the Nissan pulsar for 84% of the drivers, the Smart Electric relative to the petrol Smart for 58% of the drivers and the Renault Zoe relative to the Renault Clio only for 3% of the drivers.

Gli scooter rappresentano una scelta conveniente e sempre più diffusa per gli spostamenti nelle aree urbane. Le loro dimensioni e manovrabilità consentono di superare molti limiti propri delle automobili, soprattutto nelle città più densamente popolate, caratterizzate da elevati livelli di congestione del traffico e spazi limitati per i parcheggi. Sono però molto rumorosi e soprattutto inquinanti. La crescente preoccupazione per le conseguenze dannose dell’inquinamento, e la consapevolezza dell’urgenza di intervenire, portano a considerare i sistemi di propulsione alternativi, ed in particolare l’alternativa elettrica, come una strategia chiave per puntare ad un sistema di trasporto sostenibile. Dopo aver evidenziato vantaggi e svantaggi degli scooter elettrici rispetto ai tradizionali a benzina, il contributo mira a valutarne le prospettive di mercato sulla base di un’indagine di preferenza dichiarata. Si analizza in particolare il caso studio di Trieste per comprendere, attraverso la stima di modelli della famiglia Logit (multinomiale e misto), le principali determinanti nella scelta di uno scooter e l’impatto che il grado di conoscenza, l’esperienza pregressa, e la sensibilità ai temi ambientali hanno sulle preferenze dei consumatori per uno scooter elettrico rispetto ad uno tradizionale. I risultati ottenuti sono poi stati utilizzati per valutare l’impatto che l’introduzione dell’Ecobonus e innovazioni tecnologiche possono avere sulla probabilità di scelta, e quindi, sul grado di diffusione degli scooter elettrici. Scooters are a convenient and increasingly popular choice for travel in urban areas. Their size and maneuverability allow to overcome many of the car's limitations, especially in the most densely populated cities, characterized by high levels of traffic congestion and limited parking spaces. However, they are very noisy and above all polluting. The growing concern about the harmful consequences of pollution, and the awareness of the urgency to intervene, lead to consider alternative propulsion systems, and in particular the electric alternative, as a key strategy to aim at a sustainable transport system. After highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of electric scooters compared to the traditional petrol-powered ones, the paper aims to assess their market prospects on the basis of a stated preference survey. The paper analyses the case study of Trieste to understand the main determinants in the choice of a scooter and the impact that the self-declared level of knowledge, the previous experience, and the sensitivity to environmental issues have on consumers' preferences for an electric scooter compared to a traditional one. The estimates obtained adopting models of the Logit family (multinomial and mixed) have been then used to assess the impact that the introduction of the Ecobonus purchase subsidy and technological innovations may have on the probability of choosing electric scooters, and therefore on their potential uptake.

Il passaggio verso una più ampia adozione di auto elettriche rappresenta una delle strade per raggiungere con successo la decarbonizzazione dei trasporti. Questo obiettivo è di particolare rilievo perché il trasporto su strada è responsabile di più del 20% delle emissioni totali di gas effetto serra in Italia, ed è anche la principale causa di rilascio di particolato nell’atmosfera. Il livello di penetrazione delle auto elettriche in Italia è però ancora molto basso e rappresenta lo 0,5% sul totale delle immatricolazioni per il periodo che va dall’inizio di gennaio 2019 fino alla fine di ottobre dello stesso anno. La nostra ricerca mira a far luce su quali sono sono le barriere che frenano l’acquisto di un’auto elettrica da parte di un potenziale consumatore. Dai dati raccolti attraverso un questionario somministrato in Italia nel luglio 2019 ad un campione rappresentativo della popolazione italiana risulta che le tre principali preoccupazioni sono la presenza di una densità insufficiente di stazioni di ricarica veloci, il prezzo d’acquisto e la difficoltà ad utilizzare l’auto elettrica in autostrada per mancanza di infrastrutture. Diversamente, sicurezza, rischio tecnologico, accelerazione e piacere di guida non sono considerate barriere da oltre la metà dei rispondenti. L’ipotesi di indipendenza tra le barriere e alcune caratteristiche socio-economiche, verificata attraverso il test chi-quadro, è rigettata per il numero più alto di barriere quando viene considerato il genere, il reddito, il grado di istruzione, la conoscenza dell’auto elettrica e la partecipazione ad associazione ambientale. È stato quindi realizzato uno sforzo di riduzione del numero delle barriere attraverso due modalità, la prima mediante un cluster gerarchico che porta all’identificazione di sette gruppi di barriere, la seconda attraverso l’analisi delle componenti principali che ha portato alla scelta delle prime due componenti, interpretabili la prima come una barriera generica all’acquisto dell’auto elettrica e la seconda relativa ai possibili impatti ambientali. Infine, abbiamo condotto un’analisi cluster sugli individui che ci ha consentito di raggruppare i rispondenti in quattro categorie, ovvero gli avversi, i perplessi, gli incerti ed i favorevoli.

This work aims at analyzing the integration between electric mobility and renewable energy sources studying the case of the grid-connected microgrid under construction at the University of Trieste, Italy. A general model able to estimate the charging price and the resulting total cost of ownership per kilometer considering the match between the demand and the production of a photovoltaic generator is presented. The result is that the electric vehicle is mainly charged with the produced renewable energy (72%) and that the 60% of it flows through the storage unit. The study also presents a sensitivity analysis to show how the battery size and cost, together with the travelled distance, influence the charging price and the total cost of ownership per kilometer. Considering the current Italian prices and subsidies, results show that the use of an electric car is today feasible from both an environmental and an economic point of view.

The paper reports the results of a stated preference study, carried out in Italy in 2017, on consumers' preferences between an electric car (EC) and a petrol car. The focus is on the role of driving range. We find that the linear specification leads to lower willingness to pay (WTP) estimate for the driving range than the logarithmic, quadratic and EC-specific ones. The estimation of a mixed logit model leads to a coefficient of the EC-specific range attribute six times larger than the coefficient of the non-EC one. The jointly statistically significant covariates explaining the heterogeneity of the coefficient of the EC-specific driving range attribute are gender, number of cars owned by the family, and knowledge of cars. The implied WTP varies from 37 to 106 €/km, depending on the socio-economic characteristics of the respondent. Simulative analysis shows that very relevant increases in the probability of buying an electric car (ranging from 28% to 68%) over a petrol one require jointly improvements in the fast charging network, driving range and financial incentives.

Lo scritto si propone di analizzare il tema della adeguatezza della tutela giurisdizionale in materia di energia ed ambiente. I temi affrontati sono due. Il primo tema pone il quesito se l’inefficienza del mercato sia dovuta non solo al fallimento della regolazione ma anche al fallimento del processo. Il secondo tema individua gli interessi che sono oggetto di tutela giurisdizionale. L’analisi di questi due temi parte dalla ricostruzione di una serie di elementi. Il primo riguarda il significato giuridico della nozione di ambiente. Il secondo riguarda il rapporto tra energia e ambiente. Il terzo aspetto analizza il rapporto tra energia, ambiente e mercato. Il quarto ricostruisce il sistema di tutela giurisdizionale italiano. Il quinto analizza il funzionamento dei tribunali specializzati. La conclusione è che giudicare per il mercato non significa ancora soddisfare gli interessi della collettività. Pertanto si rende necessario un maggiore confronto dialettico e un potenziamento di sedi procedimentali volte a prevenire il contenzioso The paper aims to analyse the issue of the adequacy of judicial protection in the field of energy and the environment. There are two themes addressed. The first topic raises the question of whether the market inefficiency is due not only to the failure of regulation but also to the failure of the process. The second theme identifies the interests that are the subject of judicial protection. The analysis of these two themes starts from the reconstruction of a series of elements. The first concerns the legal meaning of the notion of environment. The second concerns the relationship between energy and the environment. The third aspect analyses the relationship between energy, environment and the market. The fourth reconstructs the Italian judicial protection system. The fifth analyses the functioning of specialized courts. The conclusion is that judging by the market does not yet mean meeting the interests of the community. However, a greater dialectical confrontation and a strengthening of procedural offices are needed to prevent litigation.

Viene ricostruita l'evoluzione del settore politologico dell'International political economy, specificando le differenze con le discipline economiche, per rafforzare il dialogo interdisciplinare. Sono poi fissate le tappe principali delle ricerche sul rapporto tra mercato e democrazia in America latina e nei paesi in via di sviluppo, sui rapporti nord-sud, sulla globalizzazione, sulle istituzioni internazionali, sul regionalismo, sull'allargamento dell'Unione europea ad est, sulla politica estera economica comparata.

Scopo di questo scritto è evidenziare gli ambiti che sono importanti per lo sviluppo dell’arte (ovvero della cultura in genere), i limiti e il superamento di alcuni di essi nella prospettiva evolutiva che ha segnato considerevoli allargamenti rispetto a quanto detto come: 1. il passaggio dal diritto dei beni culturali al diritto della cultura; 2. la nuova lettura dei valori costituzionali nella prospettiva del Welfare culturale; 3. la dimensione ultranazionale e la valorizzazione della diversità culturale; e 4. il suo contesto nel mercato e nella finanza pubblica.