Italy launches first clean hydrogen power plant

August 14, 2009 A power plant pictured in northern Spain in March 2007

A power plant pictured in northern Spain in March 2007. Italian power company Enel said Friday that it had started up a ground-breaking hydrogen-powered electricity plant producing no greenhouse gases.

Italian power company Enel said Friday that it had started up a ground-breaking hydrogen-powered electricity plant producing no greenhouse gases.

Enel said the 12 megawatt plant, at Fusina in Venice's industrial zone of Porto Marghera, was the first of its kind in the world to operate on such a scale.

Powered by hydrogen by-products from local petrochemical industries such as the Eni group's Polimeri Europa factory, it can meet the needs of 20,000 families, while saving emissions equivalent to more than 17,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to Enel.

The power station forms part of a project dubbed Hydrogen Park, which is backed by the Venice region and Italy's environment minister to the tune of four million euros (5.6 million dollars).

The project aims to develop research into the uses of hydrogen, a clean gas which produces only water when it burns.

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Ant - Aug 14, 2009
- Rank: 4.5 / 5 (2)
A realistic sounding prospect for a change, pity the article is short on detail.
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Soylent - Aug 15, 2009
- Rank: 2 / 5 (1)
A realistic sounding prospect for a change, pity the article is short on detail.

What further detail could you want? It's a tiny 12 MW plant that burns some spare hydrogen being produced by the oil industry(pressumably plastics manufacture, but they article doesn't say).

Burning oil industry byproducts is "a realistic sounding prospect for change"?
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