Italian energy company Eni signed a non-binding agreement with three compatriots, the shipbuilder Fincantieri, the bank Cassa depositi e prestiti, and energy firm Terna, at the Eni headquarters in Rome, to develop and build wave power stations on an industrial scale.
The agreement seeks to transform the Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter (ISWEC) pilot project into a project on an industrial scale for immediate application and use.
ISWEC is the innovative system that converts energy generated by waves into electricity. Eni installed the project at its Ravenna offshore site.
The ISWEC, built in collaboration with the Politecnico di Torino and the Wave for Energy spin-off, will share its technological, industrial and commercial expertise with the group, in addition to sharing information on the logistical and technological elements used at its offshore plant.
Under the terms of the agreement, Eni will share its findings from the ISWEC plant pilot project with the joint working group.
This deal is part of our strategic decarbonization plan and stems from Eni’s focus on research, development and the application of new technologies aimed not only at making traditional operating processes more efficient, but also at driving us to create new business segments in the energy sector,
…commented Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni.
Additionally, CDP will promote the project with public administrations and institutions involved and, moreover, will share its economic-financial skills, also in order to evaluate the most appropriate of financial support forms to the initiative.
Meanwhile, Fincantieri will offer its industrial and technical shipbuilding skills to optimise the executive design, construction and installation phases of the production units.
Finally, Terna will contribute by developing the study of the best possible options for connecting and integrating the energy production system with the electricity grid, including the integration with hybrid systems made up by conventional production, photovoltaic power stations, and storage systems.
In its first phase, the agreement sets out the project’s manufacturing for the construction, installation and maintenance of the ISWEC. This phase will then lead to the design and construction phases, with the first industrial installation expected to be connected to an Eni offshore production site by 2020.
The group will also consider extending the technology to other Italian sites and constructing industrial-sized stations that can supply fully renewable electricity, especially near the minor islands.
The innovative properties of the ISWEC system have demonstrated that the constraints that have so far limited the diffusion of this wave energy conversion technology can now be overcome.
