Open AccessIncreasing the Sustainability of a Fruits and Vegetables Market in South of Italy Through Combined Solar Power Production and Byproducts Valorization
Author(s) -
Simone Pedrazzi,
Enrico Morini,
Marika Nasti,
Simone Pizzileo,
Alberto Muscio,
Paolo Tartarini
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
tecnica italiana
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0040-1846
DOI - 10.18280/ti-ijes.652-421
Subject(s) - renewable energy , sustainability , business , photovoltaic system , profit (economics) , environmental economics , production (economics) , natural resource economics , economics , engineering , ecology , macroeconomics , electrical engineering , biology , microeconomics
The future is moving towards an energy system different from the current one: highly efficient, renewable and immediate. For this reason, it is necessary to promote innovative technologies to pursue the development of a green economy connected to the environmental sustainability and the reduction of food waste. This study lays the basis of a different approach on the interaction between solar production and bio enhancement of organic residual flows of a fruit and vegetable market in Southern Italy. The proposed method consists in the installation of a photovoltaic system to cover the energy needs, including the electricity demand for the use of forklifts. This innovation is linked to the sustainable management of residual agri-food waste that, properly treated, allows the production of a soil improver usable in the early stages of the product life cycle. Therefore, the optimization of the entire agri-food chain permits the achievement of the requirements needed to obtain important environmental labels, signs of transparency and safety for the market products. The results emerged from an economic analysis justify the investment for the realization of the system: the optimal exploitation of the renewable source allows an annual profit which drastically reduces the payback periods of the investment.