Energy: ENEA and Enac partner up to decarbonise air travel

ENEA and the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) have signed an agreement to decarbonise air transport, with a particular focus on hydrogen as energy vector of the future for the air transport system.

ENEA Director General Giorgio Graditi pointed out: “This agreement focuses on air transport - specifically on airport hubs - in a perspective of decarbonisation through the use of hydrogen as energy carrier. It is a source of great satisfaction that Enac has chosen ENEA as its partner to identify scenarios, strategies and solutions for Smart Energy Hubs. ENEA has a long-standing expertise in the sector and it’s conducting projects in the framework of the PNRR and creating a hydrogen valley which envisages an investment of 14 million euro, to set up a technological incubator for the development of an hydrogen supply chain to empower the energy transition and the decarbonisation".

 “In recent years the ENAC – said Director General Alessio Quaranta –has been constantly engaged in the promotion of initiatives to reconcile air transport and environmental sustainability, in line with international and national strategic guidelines. Meeting the decarbonisation targets is certainly an ambitious challenge, but there is no single solution to achieve this goal. It is therefore essential to identify integrated strategies -involving all activities and operations that make up the sector- open to technological innovations and alternative energy sources".

The agreement foresees the selection of an airport site as a "case study" to analyse energy flows and airport processes and identify technologies, strategies and improving configurations regarding energy. The goal is developing Guidelines to provide airport managers with useful elements for optimizing energy networks in airport logistics and identifying future end uses of hydrogen at airport hubs. To this end, analysis and comparison of energy mix solutions (renewable sources, storage systems, energy carriers, etc.) will be performed, as well as site management, control and monitoring technologies in order to increase energy independence and resilience, making the model replicable and scalable in similar and/or larger contexts than the case study.

Enac will publish a tender to identify the airport site in Italy to conduct the case study, favoring the proposals which extend the benefits of the initiative to local, institutional and private situations, producers of means and technologies, organizations and companies of energy procurement and dispatching and logistics operators.