Enel X, an Enel Group company dedicated to the development of innovative energy efficiency solutions, and FICEI, (Italian Federation of Industrialization Consortia and Bodies), have signed a partnership that has made it possible to create the first Renewable Energy Community (REC) made up of companies in the Industrial Development Area (IDA) of Buccino, in the province of Salerno. This is the first REC of its kind that can be replicated across the country in other industrial development areas represented by FICEI.
"Rendering our companies self-sufficient by making available the wealth of infrastructure and the capacity for coordination that the Industrial Development Consortia have is the goal to which FICEI is strongly committed. A strategic goal that is shared by all thirty Consortia - from Pordenone to Cagliari, from Bari to Salerno - and aims to foster the sustainability, decarbonization and, above all, energy autonomy of our industrial apparatus. The IDAs are therefore taking up the challenge of the RECs and aiming to become important energy hubs, thanks to the many energy-hungry consumer companies located therein which can change and become prosumers. An indispensable conversion that the reality of the climate crisis imposes on us," said Antonio Visconti, President of FICEI.
The REC was created following an analysis of the Industrial Area's surface area and the energy needs of the companies that are part of it, particularly those that are more energy-hungry or that operate in hard-to-abate sectors. It is powered by two photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of 1.6 MW of renewable energy, which will produce around 1,250 MWh for 20 years, saving 807,000 kg of CO2 per year. The members and founding partners of the Community include the Magaldi Group, which supplies batteries for storage, optimizing the performance of the REC. A role in continuity with the partnership that saw Enel X alongside the Buccino-based company for the inauguration of the MGTES, a sand battery powered by a photovoltaic plant capable of storing energy and releasing it in the form of high-temperature steam.
The Buccino REC is the first example in Italy of a synergy between players from the same industrial development area: a path towards energy sustainability in the IDA that will act as a driving force for further entrepreneurial initiatives.
Enel X Global Retail is the Enel Group's global business line operating in the field of energy supply and energy management services. World leader in the development of innovative solutions dedicated to accompanying residential consumers, businesses and municipalities throughout the energy transition, Enel X Global Retail offers an ecosystem of modular and integrated products and services, built around customer needs, promoting the electrification of uses and digitalization. Enel X Global Retail manages demand response services with a total capacity of 8.1 GW and has installed 76 MW of behind-the-meter storage as well as over 3 million light points worldwide. Furthermore, it supplies energy to around 67 million customers every day. The Enel X Global Retail ecosystem of solutions is based on a platform business model that includes assets for optimizing and self-producing energy, premium energy efficiency and management solutions as well as competitive and flexible offers, with the aim of helping the customer to define their energy roadmap, accompanying them from the initial consultancy to the implementation of the solutions.
FICEI, founded in 1963, is the only federation of its kind and comprises about 30 Industrialization Consortia and Bodies that operate and manage the most strategic production areas in Italy: from the Europe quadrant in Verona, to the petrochemical plant in Sardinia, from the steel plant in Taranto to the industrial areas of the Campania and Basilicata craters, passing through Bari, Cagliari and Pordenone. The Industrialization Consortia and Bodies, as provided for by Law 317/91, are Public Economic Bodies committed to creating the necessary conditions to foster the development of productive activities in specific agglomerations and industrial areas. It is estimated that the agglomerations managed by the Industrialization Consortia and Bodies account for almost 70% of the industry located in Southern Italy: 20 thousand companies employing over 500 thousand people. Not only that, 80% of the areas qualified as Special Economic Zones fall within IDAs. FICEI already works closely with business associations, chambers of commerce, port system authorities, and local authorities at all levels to create and manage the infrastructure and services with which to support the development and competitiveness of local companies.
Founded in 1929 in Buccino, in the province of Salerno, Italy, Magaldi Group is present today in more than 50 countries and has operational offices in the United States, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, India, and Australia. The company employs 210 people, 50% of whom are engineers, with a total turnover of 50 million euros. With a constant focus on innovation, the company, run by Cavaliere del Lavoro Mario Magaldi, has filed 55 international patents. As a pioneer in the production of technology for thermal energy storage, over the last 10 years Magaldi has developed MGTES, a technology that can be used to store a considerable amount of thermal energy from renewable sources, which is then released on demand. Magaldi Green Energy, a division of the group that operates globally, was established in 2021 to conduct research, develop, produce and market proprietary technology for storing thermal energy and for producing green thermal energy.
