The new Innovation Hub is located at Passo Martino in the province of Catania. It covers 100,000 square metres and is equipped with latest-generation laboratories, ready for hosting start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises and other national and foreign companies, as well as world-class research centres. The facility was inaugurated late last week with Salvo Pogliese, the Mayor of Catania, Antonio Cammisecra, Head of Enel Green Power (EGP), Enel's Global Renewable Energy Division, and Ernesto Ciorra, Enel’s Head of Innovability (Innovation and Sustainability) in attendance.
The 'Innovation Hub & Lab' in Catania will work not only on the development and advanced experimentation of solar energy generation technologies, but also on the development of disruptive solutions in the energy field with particular focus on the use of new technologies such as IoT (Internet of things), big data, automation and artificial intelligence and augmented reality. It will do so by establishing on-going collaborations with start-ups and SMEs, supported by highly specialised Enel personnel and using the Centre's accredited laboratories and experimenting with innovative technologies especially in the field of renewable sources, such as solar, thermal and photovoltaic, micro-grids, storage and wind, with indoor and outdoor testing.
The start-ups and SMEs will be chosen through special calls published on Enel's crowdsourcing platform or through direct scouting throughout the company’s network of relationships in Italy and abroad. The Catania Centre is optimally integrated with the network of Innovation Hubs Enel has set up in the areas of the world with the highest rate of innovation (to date: Madrid, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco) and offers access to a unique wealth of know-how, expertise, data, mentorship and support in raising capital, both through Enel's venture capital partner funds and through banks as well as public financing.
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