The Chief Executive Officer of Cassa depositi e prestiti, Fabrizio Palermo, the Chief Executive Officer of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, the Chief Executive Officer of Terna, Luigi Ferraris and the Chief Executive Officer of Eni Claudio Descalzi signed, at the Eni headquarters at the EUR of Rome, a non-binding agreement for the development and construction on an industrial scale of energy production plants from sea waves. The agreement aims to combine the skills of each company in order to transform the Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter (ISWEC) pilot project, the innovative wave energy production system installed by AND accelerate the development and industrialization process of this technology, with the aim of exploring together possible large-scale projects also abroad”. CDP will promote the project with the public administrations and institutions involved and will also make its economic and financial expertise available, also in order to evaluate the most appropriate forms of financial support for the initiative.
CEO Fabrizio Palermo commented as follows: “CDP's Business Plan is strongly oriented towards sustainable development, in line with major global trends and the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the UN 2030 Agenda. The project is therefore consistent with our strategy and, together with partners such as Eni, Fincantieri and Terna, we will be able to contribute in a concrete way to the development of an innovative Italian technology and to the diffusion of renewable generation sources, to the benefit of the country and the collectivity". Fincantieri will offer its industrial and technical skills typical of naval constructions for the optimization of the executive design, construction and installation phases of the production units. CEO Giuseppe Bono declared: “We are honored to participate in a project of this magnitude with partners such as Eni, Terna and CDP. Fincantieri is constantly committed to improving naval systems that guarantee maximum respect for the environment and this agreement, which will lead to the industrialization of a solution to generate clean energy from the force of the sea itself, excites us and makes us confident in the all-Italian capacity to look to the future".
Terna will help develop studies relating to the best ways of connecting and integrating the energy production system with the electricity grid, including integration with hybrid systems made up of conventional generation, photovoltaic production plants and storage systems. “With this framework agreement – he explains the Chief Executive Officer of Terna SpA Luigi Ferraris – Terna invests in sustainable innovation at the service of the energy transition, in the strong belief that the group's distinctive skills can contribute to enabling new renewable sources capable of making the electricity system increasingly efficient and sustainable”. In a first phase, the agreement provides for the engineering of the construction, installation and maintenance of the ISWEC. This phase will lead to the design and construction by 2020 of a first industrial installation connected to an Eni offshore production site. At the same time, the extension of the technology to further sites in Italy will be evaluated, particularly near the smaller islands, with the construction of industrial-scale plants for the supply of completely renewable electricity.
The innovative characteristics of the ISWEC system can allow to overcome the constraints which have so far limited the widespread exploitation of wave energy conversion technologies. The wave power generation plants will be able to make a significant contribution not only to decarbonisation processes in the offshore sector but also and more generally to support the sustainability of electricity production systems and the diversification of renewable sources. This agreement may be the subject of subsequent binding agreements that the parties will define in compliance with the applicable legislation including that relating to transactions between related parties.
