Imagination, agility, flexibility, leadership and awareness, key words in the energy transition, featured in the opening ceremony of the 20th SAFE Masters in Energy Resources Management. The event, held on 12 March at the MAXXI in Rome, was the official launch of a course that until July 2019 will involve thirty young graduates. This educational initiative created in collaboration with Enel ranges from classroom sessions to meetings with top managers, specialist seminars, project work and visits to operational sites.
Proceedings were opened by SAFE President Raffaele Chiulli, followed by talks from the honourable Davide Crippa, Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economic Development, and Roberto Moneta, CEO of GSE.
The event was not simply an opportunity to say “welcome aboard” to the students seated in the front rows. The representatives of the partners in the Masters took part in a mini TED-style session on the key ideas making up the “energy transition mosaic”, a picture comprising dozens of pieces, each coloured by a different keyword projected onto the giant screen. The most important of these were decarbonisation, sustainability and renewable resources. Each of the thirty or so contributors was given four minutes for his or her speech before handing over to the next speaker. This unconventional format allowed the main players in the market to share their vision and plot a map of the revolution currently taking place, using terms ranging from the evocative “cross-fertilisation” and “transversality” to such challenging concepts as “racing” and “trust”.
“Enabler” was the key word chosen by Roberto Deambrogio, Director of Communications for the Enel Group, to describe a fundamental role in the energy transition.
“The way we produce, transport and consume is changing radically, generating new business models that can create a more sustainable future. We want to enable the energy of all our stakeholders – colleagues, customers, companies and institutions, in order that they can become the drivers of this energy transition,” explained Mr Deambrogio.
He examined four micro-trends during his talk – urbanisation, which by 2050 will mean 70% of the world population will be living in urban centres, stimulating the development of smart grids in cities, decarbonisation that is becoming increasingly necessary and cost-effective, the electrification of transport, which, following the example of Enel X e-buses already in operation on the streets of Santiago, Chile, can reap enormous financial and environmental benefits, and digitalisation, which in the era of Big Data is revolutionising the way companies take their decisions.
Placing the last tile in the mosaic, the event was concluded by the Masters students themselves, who together chose the key word “acceleration” – exactly what SAFE proposes to do through them, accelerating the energy transition towards a sustainable future.