Enel international hub to start in Catania in 2017

Rome - Enel will open an international hub for renewables in Catania by 2017, as Ernesto Ciorra, Enel director for Innovation and Sustainability, announced to AGI following his participation in the Rome Startup Week event. "We will take to Catania the best startups we have come in contact with in these past years in our four international hubs in Silicon Valley, Israel, Chile and Brazil," said the director.

Enel has placed in Catania a PV panel manufacturing facility and has its most advanced research centres in the renewable energy field. The hub will contribute to enhance it further. "Startups bring innovation and a bit of recklesness to Enel's managers. We will provide a legal and logistic support to the founders of the startups that have entered our international networks throughout the period they will work with us," added Mr Ciorra. And the goal is "to develop together with them innovative solutions for markets like renewables, batteries and networks-without-networks." This means energy networks like the ones implemented in small villages that are not wired up to larger energy distribution networks, but must be autonomous. Today Enel is working with nearly 80 startups to either innovate or create new assets and products.

"Their contribution is highly valued by Enel. Most of them come from Italy, Israel and Silicon Valley, where we opened an office last month to make us known as an energy multinational corporation," said Mr Ciorra. Two other innovation hubs are in the pipeline, but they will be located in Asia: "We will open in Singapore and in Bangalore, India," pointed out Mr Ciorra. A partnership with the National Research Council (CNR) is part of the international hub project in Catania, with a view to enhancing the quality and quantity of research fields.