The SHINE project
Green hydrogen in urban transport, supported by the Lombard Cluster of Mobility, was presented in Brescia, with the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce and Confindustria Brescia, and collaboration from the University of Brescia and Brescia Trasporti, among others.
The project’s goal is to use energy generated by a small hydroelectric plant near Muscoline (owned by the Brescia Municipality) and carried into the city to manufacture green hydrogen at an existing multifunction fuel distributor, which will power two buses. On local public transportation, there are urban buses in operation.
The project, which will cost 6.5 million euros, was a candidate for the European LIFE financing program as well as the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance’s (ECH2A) request for proposals, and it has been included to the list of initiatives that will be supported and promoted.
SHINE intends to use one million kWh per year of the 2.7 million kWh per year of hydroelectric energy produced by the Muscoline power plant – the second oldest in the province of Brescia, which began operations at the end of the nineteenth century – to power an electrolyzer supplied by the specialized company Sol and installed in an area already identified by Ferlinea in the Municipality of Brescia. After that, the hydrogen will be used in “green” urban mobility schemes.
Edison plant in Porto Marghera will be hydrogen powered
In partnership with Eni and Ansaldo Energia, the business is conducting a feasibility study to determine whether to employ green hydrogen, which is created by electrolysis of water, or blue hydrogen, which is produced using natural gas and involves the capture of CO2.
The idea is to use it as a fuel to replace some of the plant’s natural gas. The plant, according to Edison, is the “latest generation combined cycle with a total capacity of 780 MW and will employ a highly efficient turbine fitted with technology designed to be fuelled by hydrogen” and will “go into commercial operation during the second part of this year.”
This initiative strengthens Porto Marghera’s position as a hydrogen valley.
Since 2003, a collaboration has been working in this direction, including initiatives such as the research, development, and deployment of a hydrogen-powered fuel cell Vaporetto.
“Hydrogen is a vector under development that will play an important role in the country’s decarbonization process,” said Giovanni Brianza, Edison’s executive vice president, explaining that the company is working on a number of integrated projects for the production and” use of this element for a variety of applications ranging from electricity generation to industry to sustainable mobility.
Giuseppe Ricci, Eni’s general manager of Energy Evolution, points out that the company supports the development of the Hydrogen Valley in Porto Marghera “by investing across the entire supply chain, from biofuel production to hydrogen for sustainable mobility and, thanks to the agreement with Edison and Ansaldo Energia, also for electricity generation.”
Claudio Nucci, Ansaldo Energia’s chief operating officer, claims that the turbine produced for the Edison thermoelectric plant in Marghera is “top of the range: a crucial instrument in the way to decarbonization, as it is already equipped for hydrogen combustion.
Snam: Hyaccelerator program awards hydrogen startups
Snam announced the first startups to join Hyaccelerator, the company’s accelerator program for hydrogen-focused entrepreneurs, at the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. The Swiss EH Group, which offers fuel cell technology with great efficiency and drastic cost reductions, and the French Atawey, which wants to build and implement hydrogen refueling stations, are the two winners.
