District heating in Lombardy Region (Italy): Effects of supporting mechanisms

Nowadays energy and environmental issues represent the main emergencies for all the governments,globally and locally. The importance of operating on the three levels of the energy system (by reducingenergy demand; by optimizing generation and management and by integrating local renewable energysources) has been strongly recognized. To that end urban neighborhoods could represent an optimal scalefor the implementation of innovative energy strategies, despite barriers at the economic, regulatory andadministrative level are still present.In recent years, as a result of an important agreement with the Italian Ministry of Environment, Lombardy Region has supported numerous measures for energy efficiency and renewable energy sourcesintegration among its territory, including district heating plants. All the interventions were analyzed inthe framework of a wider monitoring campaign aimed to evaluate effects, effectiveness, pros and cons ofthe several calls and programs. The financed district heating plants represent the case of studies describedin the present paper.The most important characteristics, conditions and technical features of these interventions were analyzed. Globally we deal with 21 interventions distributed in the territory of Lombardy Region and fueledby fossil fuels, waste or biomass. The results obtained were described in terms of environmental, energyand economic performances, taking into account the public spending and the global investment costs.The main aim of the analysis is to comment the effectiveness of the adopted local energy policies andalso to orient future policies toward the improvement of the energy and environmental performances ofcommunities and territories.