Energy communities (EC) are expected to have a pivotal role to reach European decarbonization targets. One of the key aspects is the regulatory framework adopted by each Member State to properly manage such new customers’ aggregation. The paper firstly provides an updated overview of the EC regulation, focusing on the current Italian legislation. Next, a novel methodology for the design and management of energy community initiatives is proposed. The procedure firstly solves a design and operation optimization problem to calculate the best size of energy assets (boiler, heat pump, photovoltaic, thermal storage) to be installed. Second, a Shapley value-based approach is exploited to distribute a part of the community’s incomes to members, based on their contribution to the overall welfare. Results demonstrate that the adopted methodology is effective in ensuring a proper cash flow for the community, while pushing its members towards energy efficient behaviors.

The objective of this study is to assess the technical and economic potential of four alternative processes suitable for post-combustion CO₂ capture from natural gas-fired power plants. These include: CO₂ permeable membranes; molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs); pressurized CO₂ absorption integrated with a multi-shaft gas turbine and heat recovery steam cycle; and supersonic flow-driven CO₂ anti-sublimation and inertial separation. A common technical and economic framework is defined, and the performance and costs of the systems are evaluated based on process simulations and preliminary sizing. A state-of-the-art natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) without CO₂ capture is taken as the reference case, whereas the same NGCC designed with CO₂ capture (using chemical absorption with aqueous monoethanolamine solvent) is used as a base case. In an additional benchmarking case, the same NGCC is equipped with aqueous piperazine (PZ) CO₂ absorption, to assess the techno-economic perspective of an advanced amine solvent. The comparison highlights that a combined cycle integrated with MCFCs looks the most attractive technology, both in terms of energy penalty and economics, i.e., CO₂ avoided cost of 49 $/t_CO2 avoided, and the specific primary energy consumption per unit of CO₂ avoided (SPECCA) equal to 0.31 MJ_LHV/kg_CO2 avoided. The second-best capture technology is PZ scrubbing (SPECCA = 2.73 MJ_LHV/kg_CO2 avoided and cost of CO₂ avoided = 68 $/t_CO2 avoided), followed by the monoethanolamine (MEA) base case (SPECCA = 3.34 MJ_LHV/kg_CO2 avoided and cost of CO₂ avoided = 75 $/t_CO2 avoided), and the supersonic flow driven CO₂ anti-sublimation and inertial separation system and CO₂ permeable membranes. The analysis shows that the integrated MCFC–NGCC systems allow the capture of CO₂ with considerable reductions in energy penalty and costs.

In recent years, renewable energy production has expanded rapidly, becoming an essential component of the global energy transition. However, the inherent variability and unpredictability of renewable generation require technologies that can provide grid stability and operational flexibility. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) play a central role in addressing this challenge, but their long-term effectiveness depends on a thorough understanding of their degradation mechanisms. This work aims to model and predict the capacity and power degradation of a real-world BESS operating in the electricity market, bridging the gap between laboratory-based ageing studies and field applications. Several degradation indicators, such as available capacity evolution, DC efficiency evolution, conductivity loss, and loss of lithium inventory, were evaluated to determine which models best describe the system’s ageing behaviour. Some estimations were found inaccurate and subsequently excluded, while the remaining analyses enabled a detailed characterisation of BESS performance over time. Using operational data collected between November 2022 and October 2024, results indicate a linear capacity degradation reaching 4.57% over 23 months (490 equivalent cycles), from approximately 9600 kWh to 9150 kWh, with a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 0.2%. DC efficiency exhibited a two-phase evolution, with an initial rise followed by a slow reduction trend. These findings confirm that ageing effects can be effectively evaluated using operational data, enabling reliable lifetime forecasting for BESS assets.