Enel noted that the initiative will require an investment of E47 million and said that the plant is expected to enter service in 2009. The electricity generated, equal to about 60 million kWh a year, will be sufficient to meet the needs of 20,000 households, avoiding more than 17,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year.
The project will involve the construction of a plant with a capacity of 12MW, plus 4MW generated through the re-use of the heated gas produced by the hydrogen-fueled turbine in the existing coal-fired plant, with an overall efficiency of 43%.
The hydrogen-fueled plant will be built on the site of Enel’s Andrea Palladio plant at Fusina, next to the petrochemical facility of Porto Marghera, from which it will receive the hydrogen produced as a by-product in the manufacturing process.
Fulvio Conti, Enel’s CEO, said: The Fusina plant is best suited to host this initiative. The new facility is part of the Environment and Innovation Project, which envisages investments of E7.4 billion euros by 2012. This effort underscores Enel’s determination to meet the challenge of generating abundant electricity at competitive costs while respecting the environment.
