electronics Article Economic, Energy, and Environmental Analysis of PV with Battery Storage for Italian Households Paolo Lazzeroni 1, *, Ivan Mariuzzo 2 , Michele Quercio 2 and Maurizio Repetto 2   Citation: Lazzeroni, P.; Mariuzzo, I.; Quercio, M.; Repetto, M. Economic, Energy and Environmental Analysis of PV with Battery Storage for Italian Households. Electronics 2021, 10, 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics 10020146 Received: 27 November 2020 Accepted: 23 December 2020 Published: 11 January 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional clai- ms in published maps and institutio- nal affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Li- censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons At- tribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Fondazione LINKS, Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 61, 10138 Torino, Italy 2 Politecnico di Torino, Dipartimento Energia “Galileo Ferraris”, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italy; ivan.mariuzzo@polito.it (I.M.); michele.quercio@polito.it (M.Q.); maurizio.repetto@polito.it (M.R.) * Correspondence: paolo.lazzeroni@linksfoundation.com Abstract: The use of renewable energy sources is one way to decarbonize current energy consumption. In this context, photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a direct fundamental role since it can convert sun irradiance into electricity to be used for supplying electric loads for households. Despite the huge availability of the solar resource, the intermittence of PV production may reduce its exploitation. This problem can be solved by the introduction of storage systems, such as batteries, storing electricity when PV overproduction occurs and acting as a source when PV generation is absent. Consequently, increase in self-sufficiency and self-consumption can be expected in residential end users, paving the way for more sustainable energy systems. In this paper, an economic, energy, and environmental analysis of PV systems (without and with batteries) for the household is performed for the whole of Italy, by means of a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) approach. A model to simulate energy balance and to manage batteries is defined for households to assess the profitability of such systems under an Italian regulation framework. Concerning results, indicators are provided at a national scale using GIS tools to highlight areas where investments are more profitable, boosting the CO 2 emission reduction. Keywords: PV; battery management; Italian household; GIS 1. Introduction Presently, the spread of renewable energy sources is essential to decrease fossil fuel consumption. Fossil fuels have been identified as one of the main factors responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, thus putting climate change as a top-priority challenge to be faced for the coming decades [1]. CO 2 is the gas most associated with combustion for energy purposes, and hence lots of effort and research has been put in place to develop its significant reduction. Energy production through renewable sources (RES), such as photovoltaic (PV) plants, represents one of technological solution to achieve CO 2 savings [2]. In particular, the use of PV in residential applications can greatly contribute to reducing the environmental impact of household consumption [3]. However, PV installation has not always been profitable, especially for small plants, due to the high investment cost. Nevertheless, the introduction of incentives and the progressive reduction of capital cost for PV modules has promoted PV installation at the residential level in Italy [4]. In fact, around 15% of national PV production is generated by domestic plants, and around 30% of total PV capacity was installed in households in 2019. However, the intermittence of PV production and its variability throughout the year introduces mismatching between required end-user demand and the energy production of the PV system. Consequently, PV overproduction must be injected into the grid, not self-consumed. However, the energy delivered by a PV system could be further exploited by the integration of a storage system. Batteries can optimize energy management, storing PV overproduction and delivering electricity when PV production is not sufficient or Electronics 2021, 10, 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10020146 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics