2012 between innovation and cleantech
Enel's commitment to promote innovation has registered several achievements in 2012: from smart grids to the ENCIO project, from the TOB prototype to electric mobility, as well as the promotion of start-ups with Enel Lab.
To produce affordable clean energy and increase wellbeing by balancing our eco system: these are the objectives that Enel has set in the field of research and technological innovation.
Over the last year, the Group has made these objectives tangible, by achieving excellent results in several areas of development.
For instance, with the TOB prototype, Enel has provided a solution to the problem of the energy divide: theTriangle-based Omni-purpose Building is a flexible structure, that can produce electricity, store it and provide it to inhabitants of remote areas, according to their needs. It is made up of modular elements, and it is composed of 5.4 kW of thin-film photovoltaic panels and batteries, in order to ensure electricity supply also when there is no solar radiation.
Enel has confirmed its leading role also in the field of infrastructures and networks: within the "Isernia Project", a true innovation laboratory, Enel Info+ was launched, involving about one hundred households to experiment new services to analyse consumption and produce energy. Thanks to Enel Smart Info customers can receive notices and advice whenever energy use exceeds the level that was set, favouring the direct involvement of families and an increasingly rational use of energy.
For the global development of electric mobility, Enel has launched, in the city of Malaga,Zem2All (Zero Emissions Mobility to All), a project that will create a significant advance for electric mobility integrated into Smart grids. Specifically, thanks to the innovative technology employed for charging station, an 80% charge will be made in less than 30 minutes. What's more, 6 V2G (vehicle to grid) charging stations will be installed, allowing vehicles to feed back electricity into the grid.
Enel's commitment to research is also witnessed by Enel Lab, the business laboratory through which Italian and Spanish start-ups working on clean technology projects will receive funding amounting to 250,000 up to 650,000 euro, for a total of 15 million euros over three years. Several innovation areas are involved: energy efficiency, renewables, smart grids, energy storage, automation solutions and low-carbon technologies.
Between February and March 2013, Enel will select the six most interesting projects, among all the ones that were submitted: each of the winning start-ups will receive an initial funding of 250,000 euros, and after a year they can receive an additional grant of 400,000 euro.
Finally, Enel is obviously active in the field of innovation for production: the Group leads the European Network for Component Integration and Optimization (ENCIO), whose aim is to verify the feasibility, under actual operation conditions, of new components for the construction of next-generation coal-fed plants, which work with steam temperature above 700 °C. A technology that will allow to reduce by 28% coal consumption and the corresponding CO2 emissions.