In Italy, the development of a hydrogen supply chain could create up to 500,000 new jobs over the next 30 years, focusing on technological neutrality, enhancement of technologies and research and innovation as strategic assets, as shown by Planet Hydrogen – online at eai.enea.it – a journey/investigation among the protagonists of the sector, which include EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation Marya Gabriel, President of Confindustria Technical Group for Energy Aurelio Regina, Enel CEO Francesco Starace, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, Snam CEO Marco Alverà and RSE CEO Maurizio Delfanti, Director General for Industrial Policy, Innovation and SMEs of the Ministry of Economic Development Mario Fiorentino, vice president of H2IT Luigi Crema and Managing Partner and CEO of The European House – Ambrosetti, Valerio De Molli.
Several articles and interviews provide insights on opportunities, perspectives and current limits of this energy vector; jointly with the Special issue, a guide on the most recent technologies and projects developed by ENEA in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells is available at www.eai.enea.it.
“ENEA has been actively involved in the hydrogen sector for over 30 years, conducting research, development and testing thanks to its state-of-the-art skills and infrastructures which enable it to act as a ‘hinge’ between laboratories and industry”, explained Giorgio Graditi, Head of the ENEA Department of Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources.
“The Hydrogen Valley is a good example – he continued – A 14 million euro project funded by the Ministry of Economic Development as part of Mission Innovation to create a set of high-tech infrastructures in the ENEA Casaccia Research Center, acting as a technological incubator for the development of an hydrogen supply chain and providing opportunities for development, innovation and advanced services to companies.
Special attention is given to the strategies of the United States, Japan, Australia – as well as Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands – and the main challenges and obstacles Italy faces in creating a supply chain and gaining spaces and competitiveness. To date, in our country some sectors are technologically mature while others require further effort. The Special issue highlights the fact that the capacity of innovation and technological development of research must be combined with the demand for innovation and closed cycle manufacturing .
“Italy can achieve a strategic position along the entire hydrogen value chain (manufacture, transport, logistics, distribution, storage, end uses) thanks to its great manufacturing tradition, know-how and research centers of excellence and a geographical position which make it the ideal candidate to become the future European and Mediterranean Hydrogen hub ”, Graditi concluded.
Contributions to the Special issue were given by Laurent Antoni, President of Hydrogen Europe, the European association of research organizations on fuel cells and hydrogen, Sunita Satyapal, Director of the Technologies for hydrogen and fuel cells Office of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), Ken Baldwin, Director of the Energy Change Institute of the Australian National University, Noboru Hashimoto of Panasonic Yamanashi University in Japan, Marcello Capra of the Ministry of Energy Transition, Antonino Aricò, Director of the CNR Institute of Advanced Energy Technologies, Andrea Bombardi, Executive Vice President and Antonio Lucci, Senior Business Development Manager of RINA.
Source: ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
