The role of a biogas plant to increase the smartness level of a seaside town

In recent years, smart cities have gained significant attention as cities face many challenges. Governments, academic institutions, and private companies are heavily investing in research and development in this field, and many cities around the world are adopting smart city strategies to improve their efficiency, sustainability, and livability. Waste-to-energy (WTE) is a cutting-edge concept based on the premise that sustainable energy sources and systems are essential to energy sustainability, as the literature exposes. In this direction, this study proposes the assessment of a biogas plant for a seaside town in Italy. The application of a multicriteria method to evaluate the alternative scenarios (biogas plant, street lighting, social actions), in line with the preferences of citizens, is adopted. Performance indicators calculation (PI) was used to select the best-proposed strategies. The designed biogas plant provides 4100 MWh/year of renewable energy, avoiding landfill-related costs. From a holistic approach, the biogas plant obtained the highest scores inside the priority ranking.