Hera, Yara Italia and Sapio together for zero-emission agriculture. The multi-utility has signed a memorandum with Yara Italia - a company active in the production of nitrogenous and complex fertilizers - and Sapio - engaged in technical and medicinal gases - to study the possibilities of using green hydrogen in the agricultural sector.
Under the agreement, the experimental plant, with a estimated annual production capacity of 500 tons of green hydrogen, would use the renewable energy produced by the multi-utility's Ferrara waste-to-energy plant to produce hydrogen from water and power the nearby industrial site of Yard Italia. Sapio is responsible for further checks regarding the technical solutions with which to supply the Yara plant.
With the signing of this memorandum, the Hera Group is relaunching, just a few weeks after the approval of the Business Plan to 2024, its commitment to innovation, renewable energy and carbon neutrality. In line with European strategies and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, as well as the promotion of the circular economy and interventions to increase the resilience of infrastructures.
The environmental dimension of the Plan also includes all the actions for the energy transition and the fight against climate change, which increasingly focus on biomethane, hydrogen and green syngas. In this sense, the investments of the multi-utility in technological innovation are fundamental, essential for the search for sustainable solutions in the so-called "clean energy" sector.
Furthermore, Hera has been committed to the sustainability of the agricultural sector for some time. For example, through a circular and resilient management of water which also contemplates various projects for the regeneration of water resources and the reuse of purified water.
“The development of clean energy – he comments Stefano Venier, CEO of the Hera Group – must also go through phases of study which, in the spirit underlying this memorandum, consolidate the perspectives of the most advanced projects. Moreover, it is equally important to implement these projects in a concrete and sustainable way to respond to the needs of sectors such as agriculture, which still have significant environmental impacts in terms of resource consumption, from water to energy”.
A commitment to sustainability, as underlined by Venier himself, also testified by the Group's recent entry into the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the decision to voluntarily apply the recommendations of the "Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures" (TCFD) in reporting starting from the 2020 financial year.
“Hydrogen is the future. And the future is now – he underlined Alberto Dossi, President of the Sapio Group and of the H2IT Association – we are in an important historical moment and the collaboration with companies such as Hera and Yara is equally important. To overcome the challenge of decarbonisation, the time has come to develop a national hydrogen strategy, which will allow for the achievement of the ambitious objectives set by the Ministry of Economic Development which envisage a 20% hydrogen penetration by 2050."
