Spring opens the doors to Enel's treasures. The 1000 sites of the FAI (Italian Environment Fund) Days, held on 25 and 26 March, include two of the Group’s treasures: Enel’s historical archive in Naples, in via Ponte dei Granili, and EGP’s Gandellino hydropower plant, in the province of Bergamo.
This year the event, which celebrates its 25th edition, once again aims to bring Italians closer to their extraordinary artistic and cultural heritage, inviting them to discover beauties often scarcely known.
In Naples, Enel has set up a special display, mainly addressing young people, which combines photographs and information panels to better understand the rapid spread of electricity in Italy.
Thanks to the “Apprentice Cicerons” project, the students of three Neapolitan science-oriented high schools, Vittorini, Villari and Galileo Galilei will guide the visitors, after a three-day training activity at the archive. An initiative strongly supported by Enel and FAI to raise the awareness of young people about the protection of cultural heritage and offer them a highly educational practical experience.
The journey at the Neapolitan archive – which houses 13 thousand linear metres of materials, printed, photographic, books, movies, and artifacts – starts in Milan in 1883, with the construction of “Santa Redegonda”. The latter is acknowledged as the first power plant in Europe (now the building houses the La Rinascente store) and winds up until the present day, including the birth and growth of Enel, with emphasis on the first large hydroelectric plants and the transmission lines.
Enel Green Power personnel will welcome visitors at the Gandellino plant in the province of Bergamo, a valuable example of industrial architecture in the Gothic Revival style, built in 1920. The site is still in operation, and using the waters of the Serio river and the Valsedornia stream, it produces on average 24 gigawatt/hours per year, meeting the needs of some 12,000 households.
Two events that should not be missed, thanks to the opening of doors to Enel’s history.