ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente) is a public agency operating in the fields of energy, the environment and new technologies to support the country's competitiveness and sustainable development. It operates in four main areas: clean energy, technologies & territory, emerging technologies, advanced technological applications. It also carries out important functions for the country.
Renewable Energy
Study on distributed energy with the use of renewable sources and advanced energy-generation technologies.
Setting up of demonstration plants with concentration solar systems to produce high-temperature heat.
New technologies for biomass: introduction of innovative and more efficient technologies in the country for the production of electricity and heat; design of second-generation biofuel production processes (ethanol and sundiesel).
Processes are being developed for hydrogen production with very low or zero CO2 emissions, with particular reference to thermo-chemical processes powered by solar energy, gasification of biomass and of waste as well as biological fermentation processes; development also of new materials and storage systems.
Waste Cycle
- Technologies for sustainable waste management: the aim is to spread innovative technologies for treating waste flows so as to increase the eco-efficiency of waste cycles and their sustainability; develop innovative material and energy recovery technologies. - Development and innovative technologies regarding the proper management of the waste cycle.
Sustainable Development
Development of advanced systems and ICT technologies for the analysis and management of the territory, promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, analysis of the main natural and anthropic risks.
R&D activities involve spreading the take-up of energy saving in civil and industrial sectors; reducing national energy consumption; coming up with methodologies and instruments for companies and industrial districts; supporting the Ministry of Economic Development to monitor, support and spur the take-up of incentives; training and public-awareness activities.
- Carbon capture and sequestration
The project aims to improve energy efficiency of energy-generation plants using coal and to develop innovative technologies for carbon capture.
- New technologies for thermal solar: research and development of technologies for heating and cooling buildings (with particular focus on the use of drying cycles), based on the use of heat from solar collectors. - Advanced energy: contributing to the development of the national energy industry in the short, medium and long term with the aim of limiting emissions of greenhouse gases and by resorting to a mix of technologies based on an increase in the system's efficiency, diversification of sources and exploiting opportunity fuels. - Ecobuilding: the aim is to develop technologies for energy efficiency and green building in the civil sector - both residential and non-residential - through a methodology focused on the model of the integrated energy district and the installation of a demonstration project.
Sustainable Transportation
- Transport materials: study and development of metal, ceramic and polymeric materials with the ability to operate at high temperatures or to give a significant reduction in the weight of components. - Mobility and transport: improvements to the sustainability of local mobility (urban and metropolitan) with reference both to passenger transport and the logistics of goods distribution; development and experimentation of new technologies for hybrid vehicles giving reduced consumption and very low environmental impact. - Logistics for sustainable mobility: the aim is to help rationalize long-distance goods transport so as to reduce the quantity that travels by road and to develop multi-mode transport (road, rail, ship), a demonstration system is planned for optimizing the management of interports.
- Hydrogen and fuel cell project: The aim is to develop processes for hydrogen production with very low or zero CO2 emissions, with particular reference to thermo-chemical processes powered by solar energy, gasification of biomass and of waste as well as biological fermentation processes; development also of new storage systems, particularly those appropriate for use in vehicles.
Biofuels project: research, experimentation, development and promotion of innovative processes and technologies to increase the production of biofuels in substitution of equivalent fossil fuels.
- Electric or Hybrid Vehicles
Conservation
Action plan for getting Italy to meet its European and international targets as well as for putting into action the Kyoto Protocol and the post-Kyoto process. - Climate studies and modelling: the aim is to study variations in the climate and the coastal/marine environment, develop an appropriate climatic model, study climatic effects on the environment.
Air quality
Protection of water resources
Remediation of polluted sites and application of the principles of environmental engineering.
