E‐TRANSITION, 

SUSTAINABILITY AND ECONOMICS

L0 – INTRODUCTION

Ettore F. Bompard, Daniele Grosso
 THE BASIC NEEDS FOR HUMAN BEEINGS

 Human life strictly requires to satisfy some

basic needs (or physiological)

https://it.futuremanageralliance.com/maslows‐pyramid‐of‐needs/
 Several classifications have been
proposed. In the majority of them, at least 4
basic needs are identified

Air Water
 Basic (physiological) needs may include also sleep,
clothing and reproduction
Shelter Food
 In addition, psychological needs may be considered
(Abraham Maslow, 1943)
E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 2
 THE NEED FOR ENERGY

ENERGY IS NOT STRICTLY A BASIC NEED

 However, energy plays a crucial role for ensuring the fulfilment of the other non-physiological
human needs, for improving the quality of life of people and for ensuring the evolution of
humanity since the prehistorical era
 Energy is also fundamental in helping to satisfy basic needs, e.g. for producing and getting
food, for cooking it, for supplying water, for heating shelters (from caves to modern buildings),
for producing clothes, …
 The availability of energy sources, the possibility to exploit them and the capability of use
energy through “technologies” and “machines” has been and is a pillar of the growth of human
societies

Energy is the key engine of the human

social and economic development

E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 3

 THE ENERGY CHAIN
FINAL USES
SECONDARY ENERGY
(VECTORS)  Residential
o Electricity o Space heating and cooling
PRIMARY SOURCES TRANSFORMATION
o Heat o Water heating
 Non-renewable energy: o Refineries o Refined petroleum o Cooking
o Power Plants products o Lighting
o Solid fuels (coal) o Electrical appliances
o Electrolysers o Hydrogen
Fossil

o Natural gas
o Crude oil o Industrial processes o Synthesis gas  Commerce and services
o Nuclear o Manufactured solid fuels
o Space heating and cooling
o Biofuels
 Renewable energy: o Water heating
o Cooking
o Solar radiation o Lighting
o Wind TRANSPORT o Electrical appliances
o Hydro (ENERGY CORRIDORS)
o Biomass  Industrial
o Geothermal o Oil pipelines o Process heat
o Marine (tidal, waves) o Gas pipelines o Cooling
o Wastes o Oil ships o Steam and cogeneration
o LNG ships o Lighting, heating and air
o Power lines conditioning for buildings
o District heating networks
o Road transport  Transport
o Passenger mobility
o Freight mobility
E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 4
 THE ENERGY COMMODITIES
DEFINITION OF “COMMODITY”
 An economic good that is fungible (a unit of a given source commodity is interchangeable with a unit of the
same commodity from other sources/suppliers)
 Different goods from different suppliers have the same quality (they cannot be distinguished on the basis of
the quality)
 Examples: gold, uranium, copper, aluminum, coal, cotton, oil

Primary and secondary energy commodities

“Primary energy should be used to designate those sources that
only involve extraction or capture, with or without separation from
contiguous material, cleaning or grading, before the energy
embodied in that source can be converted into heat or
mechanical work.”
“Secondary energy should be used to designate all sources of
energy that results from transformation of primary sources”
“Energy commodities are either extracted or captured
directly from natural resources (and are termed primary)
such as crude oil, hard coal, natural gas, or are produced
from primary commodities.”
“Secondary energy comes from the transformation of
primary or secondary energy.”

Concepts and Methods in Energy Statistics, UN, 1982 IEA, Energy Statistics Manual, 2005
E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 5
 ENERGY CHAIN: MULTI‐DIMENSIONAL IMPACTS

 The extraction, transportation, distribution and utilization of energy commodities for

satisfying human needs lead to multidimensional impacts
 The impacts (and their mitigation/effects) can be mapped into attributes
 The main dimensions affected are:
 Environment: energy related activities, as all human activities, interacts with
environment around in terms of physical/biological ecosystem; the impacts of this
interactions might be so huge to harm the basic needs of the human being  (energy)
Sustainability
 Economics of markets and society: energy is crucial for the economics of societies (key-
factor to industrial competitiveness) and individuals and companies needs to be able to
procure at affordable prices  (energy) Affordability and Equity
 Possibility to fulfill energy needs : energy chain must assure the availability of energy (in
terms of location, quantity and timing) to the society  (energy) Security

E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 6

 THE IMPACTS OF ENERGY USE – ENVIRONMENT

81% of the total primary energy supply in the world (606 EJ) in 2019 was covered by fossil fuels

This caused the emission of 33.6 Gt of CO2

At local scale,
this causes the
emission of air Concentration of CO2
pollutants (PM, in the atmosphere is
NOx, SO2, VOC, constantly increasing
CO, …)

Effects on human health Global warming and climate change phenomena

Impacts on survivability of people

E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 7

 THE IMPACTS OF ENERGY USE – SOCIETY AND ECONOMY
 In 2020 the energy expenditures for  In manufacturing sectors in the EU27, the energy costs usually
households accounted to 3.6% of the total range between 1% and 10% of the production costs, with some
households expenditures in Italy (36,466 sectors (e.g. cement) >20%
M€ vs. a total of 1,087,456 M€) and to
4.3% (302,727 M€ vs. a total of 7,342,501
M€) in the EU27 (Source: Eurostat)
 According to the European Commission,
energy poverty is a widespread problem
across Europe: between 50 and 125
million people are unable to afford proper
indoor thermal comfort, leading to severe  According to some estimations, the increase in energy prices
health issues and social isolation. The experienced in the last months and the ongoing conflict between
growth in energy prices could significantly Russia and Ukraine could reduce by about 1% the expected
increase the number of European citizens growth of the Italian GDP in 2022 (+3% instead of +4%), with an
without an affordable access to energy inflation reaching 6% w.r.t. the current 4.8% (Source: Unimpresa)

Impacts on society and economy

E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 8
 THE IMPACTS OF ENERGY USE – SECURITY

 The availability and the security of energy supply

is crucial, especially for countries characterised by
a high import dependency, like Italy and the EU

Relevance of the Russia – Ukraine crisis

 Gas import dependency from Russia: 43% for
both Italy and the EU27
EU: 58.2 %
 Total gas demand in 2020: 397 Gcm for the
EU27; 71 Gcm for Italy
 Total gas storage capacity: 104.7 Gcm for the
EU27; 18.7 Gcm for Italy Italy: 76.3 %

 Gas production in 2020: 55.7 Gcm for the

EU27; 4 Gcm for Italy
2018 data

Impacts on geopolitical stability and security

E. F.Bompard – E-Transition, Sustainability and Economics- 9
 THE E(ELECTRICITY)‐TRANSITION 

NEED FOR AN ENERGY TRANSITION

Decarbonisation of the energy and economic systems  increase in

renewable sources penetration and reduction of fossil fuels

Why an “e-transition?”
 Electricity can be produced from renewables sources (both ad
centralized and distributed scale), can be easily transferred through
power lines, can be stored, can have a wide penetration for fulfilling
energy services demands through highly efficient technologies, and can
be used for generating other “clean” energy commodities like hydrogen
via electrolysis

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