The energy of the Enel Historical Archive in Naples is ready to welcome visitors on the occasion of the sixteenth edition of the Entrepreneurial Culture Week promoted by Confindustria, the Italian association representing manufacturing and service companies, for a journey through the history of electrification in Italy thanks to the exhibition “Energy Past and Future.”
At the complex at No. 24 of Via Ponte dei Granili, documents, images and videos will be on display until 24 November, guiding visitors along an itinerary from the construction of the first hydroelectric and geothermal power plants in Larderello, Tuscany, to the birth of Enel. It is a fascinating journey that illustrates how language has changed over time to describe the various forms of energy, bearing witness to Italy’s economic and social development.
The exhibition also provides insight into the changing habits of everyday household life, thanks to the gradual introduction of new technologies powered by electricity.
A section has also been setup to describe Enel’s early campaigns on energy sustainability at the end of the 1980s: the original brochures of the time provide direct testimony, developing the theme “Towards a better and cheaper use of energy: how electricity is born” and illustrating how hydroelectric, geothermal and wind power plants operate, with the latter represented by one of Italy’s pioneering plants: the Alta Nurra wind farm in northern Sardinia.
Increasingly larger amounts of energy have been made available to southern Italy after the nationalisation of the electricity grid on 6 December 1962. From then on, Enel has been unifying the infrastructure of northern and southern Italy through a vast programme for the construction of 220 thousand-volt lines.
It is a special initiative that can also be enriched by visiting some substations in the Campania area, to discover in detail how electricity is generated and transformed, even after the Entrepreneurial Culture Week. It is not only a journey in time, but also in space.
The Enel Historical Archive is open to the public every day, Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 4 pm. On Saturdays—11 and 18 November—visiting hours are from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm; on Sundays—12 and 19 November—from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Entrance is free, but you need to book your visit by sending an e-mail archiviostoricoenel@enel.com, or calling +39 081.3674213.