Dr Marco Astolfi is an Assistant Professor in the Energy Department of Politecnico di Milano and he is lecturer of Energy Conversion. His studies are focused on the design and the techno-economic optimization of ORC cycles in particular for exploitation of low temperature geothermal sources and solar energy in CSP plants. Besides this topic he is currently working on the design of stand-alone microgrid for rural electrification with a high penetration of renewable energy sources and salinity gradient technologies for energy production.