Santa Barbara: an innovative energy storage in Italy

In Santa Barbara, in the municipality of Cavriglia, Tuscany, Enel and Brenmiller inaugurate an energy storage system.

Increased flexibility

In Santa Barbara, Italy, Enel and Brenmiller unveil a thermal energy storage (TES) system. During this inauguration, several personalities are present as the president of the region of Tuscany. Thus, Eugenio Giani, the president of the Tuscany region declares:

“This inauguration confirms that Tuscany has a central role for energy, both for production and for innovation.”

The project in Santa Barbara stores energy in the form of heat. Thus, it can store up to 24MWh of clean heat at a temperature of about 550°C for five hours. Indeed, the integration of the TES system into the existing plant allows the latter to be more flexible.

An Italian-Israeli collaboration

Brenmiller is behind this technology and its development in Israel. Thus Enel is integrating the system into its Santa Barbara power plant. Salvatore Bernabei , head of Enel, states:

“Flexibility and adequacy are two fundamental components of an efficient and reliable power system, which can be increasingly efficiently supplied by storage. This trial allows us to validate a family of innovative and sustainable technologies in the long-term storage segment, which will enable ever greater integration of renewable energy into the grid.”

The partnership between Brenmiller and Enel is part of the collaboration between the Israel Innovation Authority and Enel, signed in 2015. This partnership between the two companies stems from an Italian-Israeli collaboration protocol. It aims to accelerate cooperation between Israeli companies and major Italian industries.