Enel, headquartered in Rome and Europe’s largest utility company, used to depend heavily on coal. But it’s in the process of shutting down all of its coal power plants globally over the next six years and transforming the old sites for new uses, including as renewable energy hubs.
In Teruel, Spain, for example, a massive former coal plant will be converted into Europe’s largest solar power plant, with extra wind power and battery storage on site that will more than replace the power generation from coal. Other sites will transition to green hydrogen, “a highly promising solution that can serve as an alternative to electricity in the so-called “hard to abate” sectors, such as heavy industry, shipping, and aviation,” Cautadella says. “In these cases, hydrogen can be extracted through processes powered by renewable sources, a unique technology that is genuinely green.”
In Italy, the company ran a “new energy spaces” competition for architects to redesign four former coal plants that run, in part, on renewable energy. A winning design in Venice turns part of the complex into a center focused on sustainable innovation open to the public. New buildings on the site, made with recycled materials, are designed to use as little energy as possible, and new plantings will help reconnect the industrial complex with the surrounding lagoon.
The projects aren’t all moving toward sustainability as quickly as is technically possible—some of the sites will use renewable energy in combination with gas, which still adds to climate change. Enel doesn’t plan to fully decarbonize until 2050, and arguably could reach that goal much faster. Still, the company was early to embrace renewable energy, launching Enel Green Power in 2008, now a global leader with more than 1,200 renewable power plants on five continents. And over the next decade, it’s planning to spend $190 billion to nearly triple its renewable capacity and build out the grid for a future with electric cars and other surging demands for electricity. Its investments in renewables over the next few years are nearly as much as the combined plans of BP, Total, and Shell. Finding new uses for old coal plants is one part of the larger transition.
“This repurposing is in line with the principles of the circular economy: This way, not only will they offer a new value to the areas in which these facilities are located, but they will also enable the reuse, at least in part, of the materials and some parts of the plants in order to minimize consumption of raw materials,” says Cautadella.