# Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change on Power Systems: The Italian Case Study
## 6 Discussion  
* The models used to assess the impact of climate change on the environmental variables that determine the level of production and efficiency of generation facilities, both programmable and non-programmable, and systems that use thermal cycles, are subject to significant uncertainty. For example, the number of equivalent hours to rated output may experience a significant deviation from historical values for the same installed capacity. This uncertainty determines an increase in electrical power reserve levels, to ensure an adequate and reliable system;
* Depending on the technology of electricity generation, a difference in power generation was found depending on the geographical area. Global warming will likely cause more severe and frequent heat waves and droughts, which, in turn, will affect thermoelectric production in southern European countries (including Italy) more than in northern (Scandinavian) countries. In this perspective, EU energy policy decisions should take into account this type of geographical disparity and promote the switch to renewable energy accordingly;
* The uncertainty of the impact of climate change on the future energy scenario could vary depending on the radiative concentration pathways used;
* From an electricity grid planning perspective, continental and national policy decisions and associated scenarios will certainly play a crucial role in the development of each country's production mix, with particular attention to the use of non-programmable renewable energy sources. However, these national plans should take into account the different impacts of climate change between countries. Italy could likely experience an overall annual decrease in available wind and PV energy and thermoelectric efficiency. However, the greatest challenge could be the occurrence of long periods of extreme weather conditions (heat waves, drought). These challenging weather conditions can plunge the electricity system into crisis, which should therefore have a level of resilience adapted to the evolution of the generation mix and climatic changes;
* To achieve the European Union's environmental goals, demanding the increase of RES must be enforced. The papers [13; 14] have analyzed the impact of climate change on future energy system scenarios with a high RES share, without considering storage systems. However, climate change impacts should also be studied for power systems that include storage systems. Indeed, it is not possible to imagine a high RES share in an energy system without a corresponding storage system. Moreover, the presence of storage systems could facilitate the planning of those RES systems, such as wind turbines, that are characterized by a high sampling uncertainty regarding the impact of climate change on electricity generation. Thus, it would be advisable to consider energy systems in conjunction with storage systems in research studies on the impact of climate change on energy production;
* The magnitude and sign of spread for the projections of climate change impacts depending on the generation technology considered. Indeed, the projections for wind generation showed a larger range of variation and a large scatter in the sign of the individual models compared with PV generation technology. This is easily explained by considering that wind has a greater natural variability than solar radiation;
* In analyzing the projections for the effects of climate change on electricity generation, it is necessary to consider the individual models in addition to the ensemble mean, because the response of the latter may hide important details about the projections for the change in electricity generation with an increase in global warming;
* Increasing the share of renewable energy sources in electricity grids could help transmission system operators make the system more resilient to worsening climate change.