Techno-economic feasibility analysis and optimization of a hybrid renewable energy system to power an ultra-fast charging station for electric vehicles on Rome's GRA

Introduction 1 Introduction We live in a historical period in which the need for clean technologies is increasingly pressing. Our way of producing energy has become unsustainable and it is scientifically proven that this is having repercussions on our planet with the global warming phenomenon. A special report published in 2018 by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) claims with high accuracy that anthropical activity already raised global temperature of about 1°C and that global warming is likely to reach 1,5°C between 2030 and 2052 at current rate. It also explains that global warming effects are non- linear with temperature increase: an increase of 2°C will have far worse consequences than 1,5°C. Hence, it stressed the urgency to reverse course as soon as possible, or it might be too late. With regard to these issues, a climate agreement was reached in 2015 at the COP 21 (Conference of the Parties). Called the Paris Agreement, this document set the goal of limiting future increases of global temperature ‘’well below 2°C” with respect to pre- industrial levels aiming to limit it to 1,5°C. The agreement also highlighted the need to peak greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as soon as possible [1] and established the need to reach net-zero emissions in the second half of the century. Despite this, it’s difficult to imagine that our society simply decreases its energy demand by giving up large-scale energy services. What is needed is a complete, renewable transition to clean energy technology that provide the energy resources we need without generating GHG or polluting air, land or water. This transition has long since begun, but now is time to seriously tackling this challenge. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a drastic worldwide reduction of economic activities and mobility during the first half of 2020, reducing global energy demand. The impact on energy demand was generally greater for fossil fuels and global CO2 emissions have fallen by 5,8% (about 2 Gt) in 2020, hitting the lowest level since 2011. This was the largest ever decline in CO2 emissions and about five times greater compared to the previous record reduction of 0,4 Gt in 2009 due to the financial crisis [2]. But this event represents only a temporary slowdown in emissions, in fact if there were no new lockdowns, the estimates on energy demand and therefore on greenhouse gas emissions already foresee a rebound effect for 2021 [3] that will lead to the recovery of a large part of the emissions avoided last year. Great importance in the green transition is given to the transport sector and its future developments, as it nowadays accounts for a 21% share of total greenhouse gas