Energy: in Italy the world conference on concentrated solar thermal

Italy will host the 2024 edition of the SolarPACES Conference, the world's leading event for concentrated solar thermal technologies, which returns to Europe after over a decade of editions hosted on the other four continents. The news was released during the final session of the 2023 edition which took place in Sydney, Australia. ENEA represents Italy within the Executive Committee of the Technological Collaboration Program (TCP) and will be the event coordinator.

The conference, which presents annualy the main research outcomes and the progress of commercial projects, is organized within the framework of the TCP of the International Energy Agency (IEA), of which Italy is a member since its establishment.

 “This is a prestigious result for our country, which, starting from the first pioneering activities on concentrated solar thermal launched by ENEA at the beginning of the 2000s, has seen the growth of a community of national stakeholders very active in the field of research globally and in the development of highly innovative commercial systems", pointed out Walter Gaggioli, head of the ENEA Solar Thermal, Thermodynamic and Smart Network Division. “The conference - he said - arrives in Italy at the most favourable time to consolidate national expertise on the topic: the first 5 MW commercial molten salt CSP plant with 15 hours of storage has recently entered into operation in Sicily and a second will be completed in the first months of next year."

Concentrating solar thermal systems can be a technology enabling the energy transition of various production sectors, thanks to their possible integration with long-term storage.

 “The conference will be a leading showcase for national excellence in research and industry and a fundamental moment to consolidate the Italian network of stakeholders in the sector, which, after the dissolution in 2019 of the national association for thermodynamic solar energy (ANEST), has recently started meeting again on the occasion of a series of events promoted by ENEA", concludes Gaggioli.

As a lead-up to the Conference, a new public meeting of the Italian network of stakeholders in the sector will be held on 23 January 2024 in Rome, as part of the activities of project 1.9 - Solar Thermodynamic Electrical System Research, funded by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security.