- The project, of which Enel X is the technological partner and Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa, the financing institution, involves the installation in Ragusa of a 200 kW photovoltaic system and a digital platform for the multi-year management of the community;
- The initiative will allow the small and medium-sized enterprises involved to share their energy consumption, reducing CO2 emissions and obtaining a series of economic benefits;
- This is the first Italian example of an energy community in the agriculture sector.
Ragusa, June 18th, 2021 - The first Italian collective agricultural self-consumption energy community is launched in Ragusa. The project, supported by Enel X with the collaboration of the Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa (BapR), involves the construction of a 200kW photovoltaic system plus the technological platform for the management of the energy community. This will be made available to a group of companies in Ragusa who are active in the agricultural sector, led by La Mediterranea Società Consortile Agricola.
The energy community, made up of various companies that occupy a territorial extension of 60 hectares, will thus be able to virtually share their energy consumption, obtaining twenty-year state incentives to be redistributed to the benefit of all members and significantly reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions, with economic benefits and environmental advantages for the whole territory.
"With this initiative we are launching the first energy community open to SMEs in the agricultural sector, which will set an example for similar initiatives to be implemented in the rest of the country,” said Augusto Raggi, Head of Enel X Italia. "With this project, Enel X confirms its commitment to actively support the energy transition of companies and their sustainability. Enel X provides a range of cutting-edge technological services and digital infrastructures in order to make energy communities an efficient and sustainable ecosystem, especially for the strategic Agriculture sector, which until now had never experienced such a model."
"We have given a concrete meaning to the green choice," stated Saverio Continella, General Manager of the Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa. "We strongly believe in a future, which can only be sustainable from both economic and environmental points of view plus, as a consequence, social points of view as well. The financing to the energy community promoted by the La Mediterranea Società Consortile Agricola, an Italian agriculture leader, is therefore a legitimate source of pride for BapR. The Bank is ready to support the financing of energy communities whether they are made up of companies or individuals, and whether promoted or not by public administrations.”
"Having succeeded in involving the agricultural sector, for the Energy Communities this means opening a new and interesting chapter and widening a circle which, after the first operational CER in Italy in Magliano Alpi and then Italy's first self-consuming condominium in Pinerolo, today finally embraces the agricultural sector," said Gianni Pietro Girotto, President of the Industry, Commerce and Tourism Commission of Italy’s Senate. "I expect this initiative to become a replicable example throughout our territory and to give Small and Medium Enterprises in agriculture a new impetus towards competitiveness and energy transition."
The photovoltaic system will produce more than 300 MWh and will feed more than 240 MWh into the grid, which will be 100% shared between the companies that are part of the business condominium.
Enel X will guarantee the multi-year technical economic management of the community by providing its digital platform and its innovative technologies, with the aim of ensuring, through apps and periodic reports, continuous real-time monitoring of the health of the energy sharing, and identifying solutions for improving the amount of shared energy, stimulating members to electrify their consumption and making them increasingly sustainable.
The project will generate environmental, economic and social benefits: thanks to the photovoltaic system, the production of 121 tons of CO2 per year will be avoided, while the community will be able to benefit from new twenty-year economic incentives, generated by the collective energy sharing process.
Enel X is the Enel Group's global business line, which offers services to accelerate innovation and drive the energy transition. World leader in the sector of advanced energy solutions, Enel X manages demand response services for approximately 6 GW of total capacity globally, and approximately 100 MW of installed storage capacity worldwide, as well as approximately 195,000 electric vehicle charging points made available globally[1]. Through the offering of advanced solutions, including energy management, financial services, and electric mobility, Enel X supplies each partner with a bespoke ecosystem of technological platforms and consultancy services based on sustainability principles and the circular economy. The aim is to supply people, communities, institutions, and businesses with an alternative model, fully respecting the environment, capable of integrating technological innovation with daily life. Each solution is engineered to transform the goals of decarbonization, electrification, and digitalization into sustainable actions for all, in order to build a more sustainable and efficient world together.
Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa, with over 130 years of history, is today the largest regional bank in Sicily, present in the provinces of Ragusa, Syracuse, Catania, Enna, Messina and Palermo, and with an extra-regional branch in Milan. In its path of dimensional growth and territorial expansion, the Institute has always operated by promoting the values of Proximity, Mutuality and Social Responsibility. Consistent with its essence as a cooperative bank, BapR has been operating for over a century by promoting the socio-economic development of its chosen territory, supporting the projects of families and businesses and combining its growth and history with those of the local community. Today the Bank intends to face the challenges of the future with coherence and innovation. The set goal is to implement a real green revolution, aimed at producing positive effects for the environment and society and at renewing the way of "doing and being a bank”. For some years now, it has embarked on a path to integrate sustainability issues and criteria into decision-making and strategic choices. It did so with internal interventions within the company organization, creating a "Sustainability Office". From January 1st, 2022 the Ragusa Headquarters will be "plastic free".
[1] Public and private recharging points. It also includes interoperation points.