The old Enel plant in Porto Tolle change your life. In 2021 it will become a tourist village open air, in the open air: canoes, bicycles, sports, excursions on foot or sailing in the Po delta. At least this is the objective that the new, future owners of the Human company group have set themselves. Together with Montalto di Castro, Porto Tolle is the most captivating challenge among those which 23 plants are facing - plus the former mining area of S. Barbara in Tuscany - included in the Futur-e project born at the end of 2014 for the redevelopment of Enel plants that are no longer active.
THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE POWER STATIONS, PORTO TOLLE
The numbers are colossal if we look at the nearly 3.000 hectares to be reconverted, but not only for that. At the moment there are 9 projects in an advanced stage of implementation or concluded. Porto Tolle for which Enel has recently signed a letter of intent with Human Company, leader in the tourism segment billboard, it is the one that strikes the most with its high quality mobile homes and well integrated in the pristine environment of the river mouth. Human company, a brand owned 100% by the Cardini-Vannucchini family of Prato, was born as a family business but in a short time it acquired the dimensions of a group that extends its activity from villages to hostels, from hotels to restaurants (see the format Central Market of Termini Station in Rome).
THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE PLANTS, HOW IT'S GOING ON
But Porto Tolle, with its 300 hectares, is not the only one in the pipeline: the announcement of the inauguration is imminent in Carpi, on the site of the former gas turbine plant, del new hub for logistics which Enel built for its own needs, reusing a large part of the demolition material on site. In Trinohowever, a preliminary sale agreement was signed for the site with Galileo Ferraris, a limited liability company set up by local companies and entrepreneurs. The new owners will make it a theme park dedicated to the automobile with research laboratories on electric cars and an area dedicated to recharging stations, parks, innovation centers and services. The other sites for which Enel has launched the project competition procedure are Bari, Campomarino, Portoscuso, Rossano, Gualdo Cattaneo – Bastardo. The "highlight" of the package, however, is without a doubt Montalto di Castro, a nuclear site that was never born after the 1987 referendum and then a thermoelectric plant, a place in the spotlight of environmentalists due to its unique position along the Tyrrhenian coast, between Civitavecchia and the Argentario.
THE REDEVELOPMENT OF PLANTS AND THE ENERGY TRANSITION
The plants included in Futur-e all have a common denominator: they have completed their life cycle, they are off the market and, despite having contributed to the development of the country, they have exhausted their potential. Keeping them is a cost, abandoning them is not possible. On the one hand, the advance of renewables has been their definitive condemnation from both a technological and environmental point of view; on the other, it was the goad for a new destination. "The project Futur-e was created to address the consequences of the energy transition towards cleaner sources in a portfolio logic and not of a single plant” he explains Enrique Avenue, director of the Global Thermal Generation Division of the Enel group. “But the other fundamental pillar on which it rests is that of the circular economy: in fact, it is not just a question of demolishing the structures and restoring the areas to their previous state but of accompanying the process and returning the territory to the communities in an economically viable way and above all shared. Because of this we favor those who propose solutions that also have a positive social impact. In practice, acceptance by the communities living in those areas is a success factor, it makes projects much more feasible with a return that is also measured from an economic point of view. It is what it is called in the Anglo-Saxon world creating share value, create value for all".
For practical reasons, Enel has favored the method of project competitions and it is no coincidence that stakeholders, such as the Regions, local authorities, universities and associations, have been included in the judging commissions. A formula which, albeit in a long-term logic, is starting to bear fruit.
"So far - continues Enrico Viale - we have dealt with small or medium-sized projects but with the extension of our action to larger projects the new challenge will be to take the projects abroad to attract capital and investors, both as project developers and as lenders”.
THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE POWER STATIONS, MONTALTO DI CASTRO
The prototype of this future quantum leap is Montalto di Castro, 200 hectares on the sea and 3.600 idle MegaWatts. In April 2017, the selection board identified three projects that met the required criteria of social, environmental and economic sustainability. Enel last August signed a letter of intent with Studio Amati architects to learn more about the proposal for a smart village (hotel reception, tertiary sector, commercial areas) and a new marina for pleasure boats. Next step, the signing of a preliminary sale agreement. In the meantime Studio Amati has received expressions of interest from national and international subjects while Enel has presented the project in Beijing, New York, Paris and London.
THE REDEVELOPMENT OF PLANTS, WHAT IS DONE ABROAD
There are no other cases of similarly structured power station redevelopment projects in Europe or in the rest of the world, although the trend towards decarbonisation is now advancing almost everywhere. “Almost everyone has the problem of one gradual closure of coal-fired plants and more gradually also of gas-fired ones which today are still essential to guarantee modulation services”, concludes Viale. From his position, he has a global view of the various countries in which Enel is present (35 countries on five continents). And so in Spain Endesa will close two coal-fired plants in the Aragon and Leon areas and two coal-fired units in Majorca. In Chile the government has launched a table for the decarbonisation of energy production. “In Italy we moved earlier and also for this reason they call us everywhere to illustrate our experience”.
