Enlit Europe, which will be held in Milan from November 30 to December 2, is a major event for the energy industry. It will feature 350 speakers, and several of them are from Enel Green Power. The event is to file under “Not to be missed.”
An important energy sector event will be held in Milan on Tuesday November 30, Wednesday December 1 and Thursday December 2. Enlit Europe, which brings together two previous events, European Utility Week and POWERGEN Europe, is described as “a platform for the European energy sector that offers clear, concise and incisive thought leadership that looks to the future and embraces all players in the industry.” It is an event unlike any other which will bring all the players in the energy industry together to seize current opportunities, spotlight future ones, and inspire the next generation to join the journey. It will feature 10,000 attendees, 500 exhibitors and 350 speakers. As a key player in the energy transition, both in Europe and worldwide, the Enel Group will be closely involved, providing numerous speakers, including several from Enel Green Power. It will be a wonderful opportunity for energy professionals to exchange ideas, and we would like to encourage as many colleagues as possible to take part.
The event will cover all areas of the energy sector and will be divided into a “summit,” which will bring together C-level experts and innovative thinkers within the energy industry, offering the right platform to brainstorm and strategize about the industry’s challenges ahead, and seven individual “live hubs” which will cover the New Energy Landscape, Grids, Data, Energy Markets, Lifecycle Management, Empowered Consumer and Initiate. The hubs will feature “a dynamic format and engaging Q&As, allowing attendees to network in an exclusive topic-led setting. This creates the right environment to help utilities tackle the challenges they face in an ever-changing environment.”
Green Hydrogen
Not surprisingly, Green Hydrogen will feature prominently in the proceedings. Nicola Rossi, Head of Innovation Enel Green Power, for example, will speak at the “Green Hydrogen Innovation Booster”. Strategies and technology challenges to reduce green hydrogen costs will feature in this event, which is part of the “Initiate” hub, on November 30. The session will also include the presentation of NextHy, the industrial platform that Enel Green Power is launching to foster the development, test and scale-up of new cost effective, efficient and flexible green hydrogen production technologies, engaging the overall ecosystem through an open innovation approach. An “Innovation and Ecosystem for Green Hydrogen Acceleration” round table will then introduce the network that is growing around NextHy initiative, connecting technology providers, industrial partners, system integrators, research centers, venture capitalists and start-ups. The panel provides also the launching of a new Open Innovability®challenge to the world of innovators: finding disruptive Green hydrogen production technologies toward green hydrogen competitiveness.
As Rossi says: “At Enel Green Power we are leveraging on innovation, fostering the ecosystem to accelerate the #energytransition towards a greener and more sustainable future. That’s why we are launching NextHy in Sicily, an industrial platform to develop, test and scale new, highly efficient, flexible, and cost-effective Green Hydrogen solutions for decarbonizing the hard-to-abate industrial sectors. We are working with startups and innovation partners from all over the world, to rapidly evolve their solutions and scale them up with us on a global basis.”
Paola Brunetto, Head of EGP’s Hydrogen Business Unit, will talk about Enel’s vision regarding Hydrogen and will give an overview of the projects under development when she takes part in a debate on “Can hydrogen help the decarbonization of final energy uses? This is part of the “New Energy Landscape Hub” and will take place on December 1st. In explaining Enel’s plans to make green hydrogen competitive, she says: “At Enel we offer green hydrogen to our clients in the hard-to-abate sectors, in order to help decarbonize those industrial processes where electrification isn’t possible. In order to enable green hydrogen to soon become competitive with CO2-emitting fossil fuel alternatives, at Enel we are developing electrolysis projects all over the world and we are working alongside developers to help them innovate.”
Life Cycle Management
Two EGP managers will also speak as part of the “Life Cycle Management” hub. Luigi La Pegna, Head of Hydro, Geothermal & Thermal Generation, will give a brief talk at a session on Repurposing Power Plant Infrastructure on December 1. He says that “While ecological transition is proceeding and energy markets are changing, production from hydroelectric and conventional power plants is still playing an important role,” adding that “we face the challenge of managing our assets, focusing on reducing environmental impact and improving efficiency and flexibility in a sustainable approach.”
He will also explain how “climate change, decarbonization trends, increased competition and newcomers in suppliers portfolio are changing energy markets and creating new challenges for operators, mainly for more ‘traditional’ technologies (thermoelectric, hydroelectric, geothermal), with reduced plans for capacity growth worldwide.”
End of Life Strategies
Irene Fastelli, Head of Innovation Factory for O&M and HSEQ, will take part in a “Life Cycle Management” session on End of Life strategies on December 2. This will cover a broad range of issues, including the circular economy and how components and materials can be managed once a power plant ceases to operate. In this respect, Enel Green Power has recently launched several initiatives to give a second life to end of life wind blades or PV modules, in addition to collaborating with several startups for the development of new, more sustainable and easy-to-recycle materials. As Fastelli explains: “Innovation plays a key role in fostering the adoption of circular approaches to the end of life management of renewable assets. Its contribution is not only related to the evaluation of the most suitable repurposing technologies, but also to the definition of new circular business models leveraging on the innovation ecosystem, launching initiatives that highlight opportunities and show how to implement circular economy solutions at scale.”
How to get involved
These are just some of Enlit’s issues and speakers. Attendees can follow the event in Milan either in person or online. Obviously, it’s impossible to watch all the sessions but, by checking the program, you can choose the ones that are most relevant to you. For more information and in order to register, click here.
