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The Enel Innovation Hub was inaugurated today in Pisa, a space dedicated to hosting the technology partners and start-ups that work with the Group to foster the evolution of the thermal generation of the future.
Capturing innovation where it is reated and takes shape: this is the goal of the global Enel Innovation Hub network, created to attract start-ups and partners with high technological potential and turn ideas into business solutions.
The event was opened by Enrico Viale, Enel’s Head of Global Thermal Generation and Ernesto Ciorra, Enel’s Head of Innovation and Sustainability (Innovability), together with Eugenio Giani, President of the Council of the Tuscany Region and Giuseppe Forte, Councillor of the City of Pisa.
The Pisa Innovation Hub&Lab is where Enel will work with start-ups and other partners on the development, testing and implementation of innovative technologies of interest to thermal generation, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, and technologies to support safety and the environment.
“Our Group already works with the most innovative start-ups to stay in touch with cutting-edge technologies and ideas and, at the same time, to support these companies with our technologies and expertise and find ways to integrate their technological innovations into the fabric of our business,” said Enrico Viale, Enel's Head of Global Thermal Generation. “The Innovation Hub&Lab of Pisa will be an entry point for new partners and solutions to be introduced at Enel plants to boost our competitiveness and sustainability.”
Enel is present in the most important innovation ecosystems in the world: Tel Aviv, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Santiago, Madrid, Catania and now Pisa, which has always been a city dedicated to innovation, with a network of universities, research institutions and start-ups capable of opening new paths of development.
“In this ‘Innovability’ ecosystem, Italy represents a major pool of innovation, in which Enel is continuing to invest with initiatives aimed at supporting entrepreneurship and technology research,” said Ernesto Ciorra, Enel's Head of Innovation and Sustainability. “During 2018, in Italy alone, Enel will be able to draw on the ideas of three active Innovation Hubs, whose goal is to stimulate cooperation with Italy’s best start-ups. The Italian hubs are also interconnected with the international Innovation Hub network that the Group has created in areas with a high rate of innovation around the world, with the aim of encouraging internationalisation and the constant exchange of ideas.”
Working through the Innovation Hubs, Enel (enel.com) collaborates with venture capital funds, accelerators, incubators, universities, major industrial players and government institutions in the constant search for partners to make its business more efficient and support industrial growth by leveraging innovation.
The Pisa Innovation Hub&Lab will communicate with the innovation ecosystems and work on the main challenges facing Enel’s Global Thermal Generation Division, cooperating directly with Enel’s system of start-ups and partners as well as providing expertise, industrial assets and resources.
Two Enel partners who took part in the event told the stories of their successful collaboration with the energy utility.
D AIR LAB, an innovative start-up connected with DAINESE (dainese.com) which has developed an individual protection device based on the D-AIR® technology, an airbag already marketed by DAINESE for the world of motorcycling and sports and now also used to protect workers from falls while working at height.
Rotork Instruments Wireless, a Rotork group company (rotork.com) and a world leader in the manufacture of actuators and fluid control systems that recently acquired the Israeli Eltav start-up, initially an Enel partner for the integration of wireless sensors for remote monitoring and control of valves in plants.
Two different testimonials with success in common: D AIR LAB, an example of “cross fertilisation” and the transfer of a winning product from a sector completely different from that in which Enel operates, one that, under the guidance of the utility’s Health, Safety, Environment and Quality area, is now being deployed throughout the Group; and Eltav, a small Israeli start-up identified by the Enel hub in Tel Aviv, which has grown successfully in the market thanks to a unique product before being acquired by the multinational Rotork.
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