Enel accelerates its pace on innovation and research. And it does so with a new 100 thousand square meter mega-structure with state-of-the-art laboratories. The new Hub opens in Catania and is ready to host start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises and other national and foreign companies, as well as research centers of international significance. The structure, of absolute avant-garde from a technological point of view - points out a press release from the group - was inaugurated on Friday, in the presence of the Mayor of Catania Salvo Pogliese, by Antonio Cammisecra, Chief Executive Officer of Enel Green Power (EGP), the Enel division for renewable energies and Ernesto Ciorra, director of Innovability of the group.
The 'Innovation Hub & Lab' of Catania – this is the name of the new structure – will work not only on the development and advanced experimentation of energy production technologies from the sun, but also on the search for disruptive solutions in the energy field with particular focus on the use of new technologies, such as IoT (internet of things), big data, automation and artificial intelligence, augmented reality. It will do so by opening up to continuous collaborations with start-ups and SMEs with the aim of creating industrial partnerships. The most promising realities, selected at a local, national and international level, will have the opportunity to test their solutions at Passo Martino, with the support of highly specialized Enel personnel and making use of the Centre's accredited laboratories, experimenting with innovative technologies especially in the field of renewable sources, such as solar thermal and photovoltaic, microgrid, storage and wind, with indoor and outdoor tests.
The search for start-ups and SMEs will take place through specific 'calls' published in the Enel crowdsourcing platform or through direct scouting through the network of relationships developed in Italy and abroad. Furthermore, the Catania site is synergistically integrated with the network of Innovation Hubs created by Enel in the areas with the highest rate of innovation in the world (to date: Madrid, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Tel Aviv, San Francisco) and, underlines the company again, it offers access to a unique wealth of know-how, expertise, data, mentorship and support in the search for capital, both through Enel's partner venture capital funds and through banks and public funding.
