Increasingly at the forefront in renewable energy sources, with a focus on material recovery and network efficiency
In 2021, we continued with investments dedicated to making our plants and our networks increasingly efficient.
In line with our 10-year Strategic Plan, the Environment Business Unit continued to intensify its efforts all along the waste recovery chain, thanks also to external acquisitions. An agreement was signed for the acquisition of a 30% holding in F.lli Omini SpA, a company specialized in demolishing and decommissioning industrial facilities. A2A also acquired the share capital of TecnoA, one of southern Italy’s leading companies in the treatment of industrial waste, with a facility in Crotone boasting a capacity for around 300,000 tonnes of industrial waste a year. In 2021, a project got under way for the completion of a new treatment line at the WtE plant in Parona to replace the existing line for the combustion of non-perilous special waste.
The Generation Business Unit carried forward the Group strategy of boosting renewable production. In line with the Plan commitment to increase production capacity, worthy of note is the increasing contribution of photovoltaic production (+150% compared to 2020). In 2021, we signed a binding agreement for the acquisition from Octopus Renewables of a portfolio of 17 solar installations with a nominal power of 173 MW. The installations will enable the generation of about 420 GWh a year of green energy, equal to the annual consumption of approximately 200,000 residential customers, and will make it possible to avoid the emission of an overall total of 2.5 million tonnes of CO2.
Finally, the Smart Infrastructures BU has carried forward its work on the water network: in 2021, in the city centre, and covering 130 km of water pipeline, we installed another 220 noise loggers able to detect the ‘noise’ of water leaking from a pipeline. Work has been started on the construction of a water treatment facility in Valtrompia: in the initial phase, the project will deliver water purification for around 85,000 equivalent inhabitants. Concurrently, in 2021, activity to extend the district heating network in Lombardy continued: A2A and ENI signed a 20-year agreement for the supply of heat generated by Enipower’s Bolgiano plant and which will be used to fuel the district heating network in Milan. Thanks to the agreement, it will be possible to supply Milan with cogenerated heat amounting to about 54 GWh a year, equal to the average annual requirement of approximately 6,000 families.
Some 2021 numbers
18,160GWh
Electrical energy produced and put into the grid
2,957GWh
Thermal energy produced and put into the grid
56Mm3
Water supplied to consumers
~1.9milion tonnes/year
Material treatment and recovery
Actions
Thermal storage at faciliities
In 2021, work continued to complete additional thermal storage capacity at A2A Calore e Servizi district heating facilities. At Milan’s Famagosta facility, two 1,500-cubic-metre heat storage units are being built, with completion scheduled in 2022.
At the Goltara facility in Bergamo, under construction is a new 4,000-cubic-metre unit which will save over 4,200 tonnes of CO2 a year.
Another two projects are ongoing in Brescia, with the building of two storage units at the Nord facility and the upgrading of existing capacity at the Lamarmora site. There will be an estimated overall saving of around 1,000 TOE/year for the city of Brescia.
Bioenergy: acquisition of Agripower
At the end of 2020, we acquired the entire share capital of Agripower, one of Italy’s leading producers of electricity from biogas, with generation plants fuelled by agricultural and agroindustrial residues. The company owns 18 facilities located across northern and central Italy and in Sardinia, with an overall installed power of about 18 MW and a treatment capacity of about 445,000 tonnes of feedstock (maize, pig and cattle slurry, etc.). The company also provides a significant operation and management service for biogas power producers, with a portfolio of over 60 units.
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