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Our renewables for carbon neutrality

We make use of skills and technologies in the research and development of energy from alternative sources to make our activities around the world more sustainable.

Renewables are non-depletable sources of energy because they are naturally replenished on a time scale which is compatible with human life. This can take place through physical processes, such as the use of natural elements like the sun, wind, water and geothermal heat, or through chemical processes such as the use of waste and residue from various types of biomasses, household waste, agricultural and food industry processing. In this case it means consuming organic substances by putting the carbon back into circulation that those same substances had accumulated only a few years earlier, i.e. without altering the natural balance of the carbon dioxide and without increasing its concentration in the atmosphere.

 

The decarbonisation challenge places renewable energy at the centre of our strategy, in our aim to cut emissions both from our own operations and from the use of our products by our customers. Our target is to improve the efficiency and  the environmental impact of all products and processes by 2050 whilst at the same time contributing to achieving Goal 7 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda: to facilitate universal access to affordable, cleaner energy.

This is also why Plenitude was established; it is a Benefit Company controlled by Eni that implements the production of renewable energy with the traditional sale of electricity and gas, services for energy efficiency and electric mobility, through which we aim to reach the target of Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3 zero net emissions by 2040.

All the technological solutions designed by Eni in the field of renewables and to contribute to the environmental protection find their industrial application in our upstream plants, ensuring that our operations around the world can be all the more sustainable.

We are currently engaged in several areas of development: from solar (photovoltaic and thermal) to wind, from marine energy to biofuels, biogas and biomethane. This path is supported by major investments in Research and Development activities and collaborations with first-class partners from academia, the public sector and the private sector. The production of biofuels is an additional means of reducing emissions in the transport sector through the exploitation of agricultural by-products, amongst other solutions.

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The road to renewables (100% Plenitude)

Result to be confirmed in the Annual Financial Report 2022
2,2GW
Installed capacity from renewables in 2022
>15 GW Installed capacity from renewables by 2030
Target confirmed in the long-term Strategic Plan until 2050
7GW
Installed capacity from renewables by 2026

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From Italy to Australia: renewables for Plenitude customers

We are committed to offering households and businesses products and solutions that are more sustainable and, at the same time, competitive. Plenitude supplies electricity to 10 million European customers, that will exceed 11 million in 2026, in the retail marketplace and 100% of this energy is certified by guarantees of origin, as being produced by plants powered by 100% renewable sources. Thanks to industrial synergies and agreements for the acquisition of large plants abroad, our clean energy is sent around Europe, passing through France, Greece, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Norway, and reaches as far as the USA, Kazakhstan and Australia.

From production sites to the supply of renewable energy in the countries where Eni operates

Our approach combines the commitment to renewable energy and traditional business into a development strategy that aims to modify the energy blend of our operations, generating renewable energy close to Eni's facilities and replacing energy from fossil fuels with energy from alternative sources. For example, we have introduced a solar energy plant at the Bir Rebaa North in Algeria production site to supply the fields of Block 403 with clean energy (a second plant is also under construction) and opened Adam's photovoltaic plant in the Governorate of Tataouine in Tunisia to decrease gas consumption and save the emission of more than 6,500 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide. Also in Tataouine, in the south of the country, another solar plant with a capacity of 10 MW was completedwhilst in Caraculo, in the Namibe province of Angola, a photovoltaic plant is already under construction and will have a total capacity of 50 MW when fully operational.

There are also an increasing number of new projects unrelated to Eni’s industrial areas, which are working to produce renewable energy to sell onto industrial customers or the local grid.

Our research excellence on renewables and our contribution to the environmental protection

Many of the technologies we develop in the field of renewables and to give our contribution to the environmental protection originate from within our research centres in Italy, such as the Eni's Research Centre in Novara, where we possess highly qualified multidisciplinary expertise. Here we work on solutions ranging from next-generation solar energy to biofuels, from the storage of surplus electrical and thermal energy to the production of electricity from waves, and the qualitative and quantitative characterisation of possible pollutants in soils or groundwater. These include: Organic Photovoltaics (OPVs) and Solar Luminescent Concentrators (LSCs) for solar photovoltaics and Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) mirrors for thermal energy production. To provide more sustainable fuels, we develop Waste to Fuel (W2F) and Biomass to Fuel (B2F): the former transforms the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) into biofuels, while the latter, developed by Eni-Versalis at the Crescentino plant, uses agricultural and forestry waste to produce biofuels thanks to oil microorganisms. Lastly, the ISWEC system converts wave energy into electricity and makes it immediately available for off-shore installations or the power grid in coastal communities.

The growing importance of biogas in the energy transition

In the journey towards energy efficiency and zero emissions, natural gas will be increasingly supported by biogas production. As part of a circular economy perspective, Eni promotes the recovery of biomasses and waste from the agricultural and livestock sectors and aims to build plants that will produce biomethane. For example, a collaboration agreement with Coldiretti is already in place which aims to develop the national advanced biomethane supply chain in the transport sector, produced from waste, by exploiting waste and by-products obtained from agriculture and livestock farming. The production of electricity from biogas is also on the rise, particularly through EniBioCh4in, the Eni Sustainable Mobility company which promotes the whole bio-methane chain as a tool for decarbonisation and aims to feed more than 50 million cubic metres of it into the grid per year, thus becoming the first producer of bio-methane in Italy.