ENEL: PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT TO APPLY CO2 CAPTURE AND STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES IN CHINA

Thanks to the agreement signed today between the Chinese Ministry for Science and Technology and the Italian Ministry for the Environment, cooperation continues in China to promote the spread of Clean Coal Technologies.

Beijing, September 14th 2009 – The cooperation between Italy and China in the field of technologies for capturing and storing CO2 continues with the signing of the agreement today in the Chinese capital by the Minister for Science and Technology for China, Mr Wan Gang, by the Minister of the Environment Ms Stefania Prestigiacomo and by the Director of Enel’s Engineering and Innovation Division, Livio Vido.
 
The agreement signed today, which follows the Memorandum of Understanding signed in Beijing in May 2008, calls for a feasibility study into the construction, at a Chinese coal-fired plant, of a system for capturing the CO2 produced and injecting it into an oilfield, thereby increasing crude oil production.

Livio Vido, Director of Enel’s Engineering and Innovation Division, remarked: “ today this agreement strengthens the collaboration between Enel and the Chinese institutions, with whom we have been working successfully since 2004. Enel offers a great country like China its cutting-edge technologies, such as that for the capture and storage of carbon dioxide, which will make a substantial contribution to the combat against climate change”.

The Italy-China partnership will promote the exchange of information between the researchers of the two countries, both of which are committed to developing new technologies that would significantly reduce CO2 emissions produced by thermal power plants.

Enel will contribute to the success of the programme by sharing with its Chinese partners the experience it has gained in designing and constructing a pilot system that will allow it to test the most advanced CO2 capture technology at its Federico II Plant in Brindisi starting in 2010.

Enel has also developed a programme, currently under review by the European Union for the disbursement of funding under the European Economic Recovery Plan, to build a full-scale plant that, starting in 2015, will make it possible to capture CO2 generated by the coal-fired power plant to be built in Porto Tolle.

Enel is one of the most active players in terms of greenhouse gas abatement projects in the Chinese market under the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. China ranks first worldwide in terms of abatement potential so far authorized by the United Nations.

Also thanks to the Endesa acquisition, the Clean Development Mechanism portfolio (CDM) can currently count on a volume of overall emission credits coming from its already registered projects of over 140 million tonnes of CO2 –equivalent, equal to 8% of the world’s total.

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