A hydrogen-heated school in Carpi; a hydrogen-powered ceramic industry in the Reggiano area; a motorway, the A22, equipped with “pumps” for hydrogen vehicles: these are three national pilot projects presented in Modena which, added to the “Hydrogen innovation center” launched last spring by Snam with UniMore (for build a strategic alliance between companies and the world of research, focused primarily on automation and mobility) give the Emilian province the title of “hydrogen valley” of Italy and the role of a model to scale for concrete and functional experiments both in the public and in the private sector in the name of green transition. Just as the great powers of the planet scramble in Glasgow for COP26 to understand how to reduce CO2 emissions and save the climate.
The school in Carpi runs on hydrogen
The Province of Modena itself is the protagonist of the first intervention in Italy on a school, the Meucci institute in Carpi, which from next September will be able to heat the gym with hydrogen: an investment of 350 thousand euros to install an electrolyser that uses clean energy produced by photovoltaic panels with a storage system that will allow the energy produced to be conserved even in the winter. «This is the first plant of its kind in Italy – explains Annalisa Vita, director of the Technical area of the Province of Modena – and will be built with a technology that is even safer than that used for methane gas plants; and it is more innovative than what the European Commission proposes today in the hydrogen strategy. The entire plant will be mitigated by a special structure and hedges, so as to integrate with the environment. With this intervention we will reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere by 717 tons every year, equivalent to what 145 hectares of forest absorb, that is the surface of 25 football fields ».
Iris sets the course for the energy-intensive ceramic industry
«Ours will be the first ceramic industrial plant in the world powered by green hydrogen. It will come into operation in 2022 ». Thus Federica Minozzi, CEO of Iris ceramiche, introduces the investment already started in Castellarano, in the province of Reggio Emilia, which will lead the way in an energy-intensive industrial sector at risk of default, because the surge in electricity and gas bills is totally eroding the margins. A photovoltaic system will be installed on the roof of the new Iris plant – an investment of 40 million euros – which will be combined with an electrolyser and a renewable hydrogen storage system. “We are not afraid to be pioneers, it is part of our DNA – remarks Minozzi – and we hope that our plant will be a stimulus for competitors to create a demand for hydrogen technology“.
Fast infrastructure anticipates the boom in demand
Finally, it is up to Diego Cattoni, managing director of Autostrada del Brennero, to explain the investments in clean sources that the A22 has on its agenda, thanks to the “Obiettivo Green Corridor” project, where the construction of five refueling systems for hydrogen vehicles is planned. one of which in Campogalliano, in the Modenese area (the other four stations in Brennero, Trento, Rovereto and Verona north). «By 2035, more than a third of heavy commercial vehicles will be powered by hydrogen, almost half by 2040, and about a third of buses will be powered by hydrogen by 2040; while as regards medium and light hydrogen commercial vehicles, in 2035 they will represent about 20% of the market and will grow to 30% in the following 15 years. The question will be there and we must be ready ». The first phase of the Modenese station project foresees that the hydrogen is transported from that of Bolzano (where a plant for the production of green hydrogen has been active since 2014) and then it is produced on site from biomass. The intervention, like the construction of the Cispadana, is subject to the extension of the motorway concession expected in days. “We are taking concrete steps in the future of the hydrogen valley of our country – underlines Gian Domenico Tomei, president of the Province of Modena – through the field of actions that until a few years ago we thought were unattainable and instead show that the energy transition can be done, just start doing and not just talk ».