Will Turin really be the capital of new Italian energy and environmental technologies? With 14 million European funds and good help from the Compagnia di San Paolo and CRT, the first step has been taken. The new Energy Center of the Polytechnic takes off to sea. With a total investment of 20 million, it wants to open up to startups, to collaborate with aggressive companies in the energy and innovation market. In any case, the startups will be the real test bench, that desire to make Italy competitive on the basis of university specializations and economic resources. Available data show that Italy is somewhat behind in this segment. In fact, according to the Startup Hi Tech Observatory, out of 180 initiatives financed in the last two years, only 5% are included among cleantech-energy. The vast majority who have had the benefit of funding, deal with something else. The question, therefore, whether the Piedmontese capital will really have that high-profile future hoped for, arises.
Francesco Profumo Chairman of the Compagnia Sanpaolo believes, however, that the Center is an 'almost' unique example in Italy and in Europe in the union between research, innovation and business. Here young researchers will be able to develop their research in an already structured context. The money has been invested where companies such as Edison, Energy Security Lab, Eni already operate. The area of approximately 5 square meters can accommodate others, configuring the Polytechnic as the Italian energy hub. A sort of terminal for attracting Italian and European capital, regardless of origin: public or private. But also a game to be played with the referee on the world market. Those who laid the foundations for this new initiative recalled that 180 companies were born around the Piedmontese Polytechnic in fifteen years. The innovative challenge on renewable energies and relations with climate change is long-lasting. For Italy it is comforting that two large banking institutes put money for a third into an Energy Center. Perhaps they did so after learning that renewable sources have surpassed traditional ones - coal in particular - in the production needed by the country.
