The three-year objective of the research activities is the strengthening of energy-environmental modelling tools to support the planning of the energy system, with the aim of implementing an Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) that allows the evaluation of energy strategies and environmental policies at national scale, also considering the health impacts related to air pollution.

This report analyses possible methodologies for the implementation of an integrated model, developed starting from an existing energy model, TIMES, and a simplified air quality model. It describes the impact indicators estimation, needed for the integration with the energy model. The estimation is based on an analysis on health costs per unit of energy.

The calculation of these costs is one of the necessary steps for the transition of the energy-environmental model from harmonized to integrated. In addition, health costs can be reduced, not only by intervening on the energy system, but also by reducing end-of-pipe emissions. Therefore, preliminary research was carried out on the emission abatement technologies databases with the future plan of implementing them in the integrated model.

The activities described in the report benefit from the collaboration with the Integrated Assessment Modelling Lab of the University of Brescia. Thanks to an internship, it was possible to compare the model chain of RSE with a consolidated IAM model, the Multidimensional Air Quality Quality system. This study highlights how the uncertainties related to the different modules of the harmonized/integrated systems could impact the decision-making process. A detailed comparison between the MAQ model and the model developed in RSE SIMBAD-HAM is presented both in methodological terms and in datasets used.

The comparison between the two methodologies is deepened through the proposal of four scenarios, two of energy type, related to the development of the Renewable Energy Communities (scenario 1 and 2) and two on air quality planning (scenarios 3 and 4), which show how a multi-objective optimization approach can identify efficient policies in the mitigation of air pollution.

The Report is available on the Italian site