The Italian Edge: Technology For Sustainability

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THE ITALIAN EDGE

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY


THE ITALIAN EDGE TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY


ON THE COVER NEW TRADITION

OUR COVER SHOWS THE SCULPTURAL INTRICACY OF A MODERN PROPELLER WHOSE DESIGN AND FUNCTION EPITOMIZE A CONSTANT ASPIRATION IN HUMAN HISTORY: EXPLOITING THE NATURAL AND CLEAN STRENGTH OF THE WIND. SUBJECT TO CONSTANT EVOLUTION, WINDMILLS HAVE BEEN IN USE IN THE PERSIAN EMPIRE SINCE 200 B.C. COMPARE THIS DETAIL OF THE TRADITIONAL MODEL WITH ANOTHER ON PAGE 5, IN WHICH THE NEW AND THE OLD SIT FACE TO FACE, IN TEXAS, AS PART OF THE LARGEST WINDMILL FIELD IN AMERICA AND POWERED BY ITALIAN ENERGY COMPANY, ENEL. AS SEEN ON THE COVER OF OUR PREVIOUS VOLUME, ‘TECHNOLOGY FOR EXCELLENCE’, THIS IMAGE IS PRINTED ON A MONOCHROME METALLIC BACKGROUND IN A COMPOSITION INSPIRED BY ARTIST MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO.

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CREDITS THIS PUBLICATION IS A PROJECT OF THE ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION - ICE

PROJECT COORDINATOR

MATTEO PICARIELLO

PROJECT SUPERVISOR

PASQUALE BOVA

ROME TEAM

MILENA CATARCI CRISTIANA POTO

CHICAGO TEAM

PUBLISHER/MANAGING EDITOR

JOSEPHINE ALBANESE CORRADO CIPOLLINI BART PASCOLI CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON MARIO CALVO-PLATERO IL SOLE 24 ORE

STAFF WRITERS

EMC MEDIA / IL SOLE 24 ORE HENRY BAKER JILL GOLDSMITH JAMES KELLY HEATHER O’BRIEN ERIC SYLVERS PHILIP WEBSTER

PRODUCTION

EMC MEDIA / IL SOLE 24 ORE JULIET FABER SARAH LEARMONTH

GRAPHIC DESIGN

EMC MEDIA / IL SOLE 24 ORE PIER PAOLO BOZZANO

PHOTOGRAPHY PRINTED IN ITALY PUBLISHED BY

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ALESSANDRO GRASSANI NAVA PRESS ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION - CHICAGO OFFICE 401 NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE, SUITE 3030 CHICAGO , IL 60611


© 2011 ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION THE EDITORIAL CONTENT OF "THE ITALIAN EDGE: TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY" (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ALL INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THE PERSONS AND ORGANIZATIONS REFERENCED THEREIN, FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS, ANALYSIS, RESEARCH, CONCLUSIONS AND OPINIONS) HAS BEEN PREPARED BY AND REPRESENTS THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE WORK PRODUCT, REPRESENTATIONS, VIEWS, CONCLUSIONS AND OPINIONS OF EMC MEDIA / IL SOLE 24 ORE. THE ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION DISCLAIMS AND SHALL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INACCURACIES, QUOTATIONS, CITATIONS OR STATEMENTS OF FACT MADE BY EMC MEDIA/II SOLE 24 ORE. YOU SHOULD NOT RELY ON "THE ITALIAN EDGE: TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY" FOR INVESTMENT, TAX OR BUSINESS PLANNING ADVICE.

THE “THE ITALIAN EDGE: TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY” IS NOT PRODUCED, COMMISSIONED, SPONSORED OR ENDORSED BY ANY OF THE PERSONS OR ENTITIES REFERENCED OR DEPICTED THEREIN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "THE ITALIAN EDGE: TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY" IS SUBJECT TO, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE COPYRIGHT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES, THE BERNE CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF LITERARY AND ARTISTIC WORKS, THE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION COPYRIGHT TREATY AND THE UNIVERSAL COPYRIGHT CONVENTION. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED, STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, OR TRANSMITTED, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, NOW KNOWN OR HEREINAFTER CONCEIVED, ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL, PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING, OR OTHERWISE, WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD PRESENTATION INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 1.1 GREENHOUSE GASES 1.2 SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY 1.3 RECYCLING

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10 Nouriel Roubini 12 Umberto Vattani 14 A 18 CREATING SUSTAINABLE WORLD 20 Introduction DOWN 24 FLARING IN NIGERIA SMILE FOR 30 ASUSTAINABILITY TURNING 36 TRASH INTO CASH

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ENI 24 FAAM 30AMUT 36 GLOBECO 42 ALENIA 48 LEITNER 60 ENEL 66 ANGELANTONI 72IMPREGILO 78

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1.4 POLLUTION TRAINING 1.5 TECHNOLOGY & SECURITY

CHAPTER 2 2.1 GREEN POWER 2.2 ENERGY PRODUCTION

2.3 RENEWABLE ENERGY

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

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RECLAIMING THE SEA

CLEAN AIR COSTS

RENEWABLE 54 LEVERAGING ENERGY SOURCES 56 Introduction WINDS 60 THE OF CHANGE WORLD 66 OLD NEW TRICKS SAHARA 72 THE POWER ROCK 78 THE EATER

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DAVI 92 FOMAS 98 MAGALDI 104ITALPROGETTI 110

CHAPTER 3 3.1 AEROSPACE

3.2 WATER CONSERVATION 3.3 MANUFACTURING AND OPERATING

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EFFICIENT 84 ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES 86 Introduction STELLAR 92 ITALY’S METAL SHOP 98 ACHIEVING CRITICAL MASS 104 KEEPING ASHES COOL A SPIN 110 GIVING TO TANNING 116 BUILDING GREEN Introduction

4.1 SOLAR PANELS

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SUSTAINABILITY MEETS DESIGN

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PRAMAC 122SEVES 128ITALCEMENTI 134TREVI 140 ZAMPERLA 146

128 SCALING THE HEIGHTS 134 LIGHTING AND SHADOWS 4.3 SUSTAINABLE BUILDING A TALE OF 140 SOLUTIONS TWO TOWERS 146 RECLAIMING CONEY ISLAND AFTERWORD 152 Cotec LIST OF COMPANIES 154 LIST OF ASSOCIATIONS 155 ANNOTATED INDEX 156 4.2 SMART MATERIALS

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

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FOREWORD NOURIEL ROUBINI PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

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World renowned economist Nouriel Roubini is a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and the chairman of the Roubini Global Economics. In September 2006, wrote the New York Times, he spoke before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and warned that "the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence, and, ultimately, a deep recession". Someone called him ‘Dr. Doom’ for predicting a global financial meltdown. As we know he was vindicated.

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n a global economy, bigger is not always better. Smaller countries can create successful templates that larger economies can imitate, and Italy's manufacturing sector provides a world-class example. The longtime Italian model of industrial districts continues to be a competitive advantage that other nations, developed and developing, would be mistaken to overlook. The integration of smaller and mediumsized companies within the same sector, and clustered in the same area, is one of the Italian innovations that propelled the country to its place among the world's seven biggest economies. Certainly, Italy's other charms also remain a powerful draw and an economic mainstay. Its excellence in fashion and gastronomy and the beauty of its shores, art and architecture are renowned the world over; yet Italy is not the first name to come to mind when mentioning hi-tech and precision manufacturing. But to those in the know – businesspeople, engineers, entrepreneurs and the American military –

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Italian innovation is recognized, and the object of envy and admiration. Such innovative spirit may turn out to be the key advantage that will make Italy thrive in the face of growing competition, most of all from the Far East. Italy's network of small and flexible industrial complexes, often family-owned, is focused on production rather than financial speculation. That single-minded concentration on product, innovation and marketing is one of the greatest advantages of the Italian way to manufacturing. Small size also brings another advantage: adaptability. Italian entrepreneurs can react quickly to changing market demands and conditions. That fast, nimble approach can offset succesfully the disapperance of the Italian lira as a tool that routinely helped exports through devaluation. That adaptable, uniquely Italian system is one reason behind the fact that, for example, a tiny company in Emilia-Romagna supplies the shells for NASA’s new generation of rockets.

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

The old motto that "nothing is sure except change" is even truer in an integrated world economy. Being able to react to that change may turn out to be one of the defining traits of successful economic players in the 21st century. Italy’s small businesses have an enormous accumulated experience in managing and adapting to change; others would do well to study and assimilate that wealth of uniquely Italian knowledge.

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PRESENTATION AMBASSADOR UMBERTO VATTANI PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION - ICE

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Umberto Vattani, President of the Italian Trade Commission (ICE), has served in the Italian diplomatic service for many years. Twice Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, he is former Ambassador for several countries, current President of the Venice International University (VIU) and Director of the Italy-Japan Foundation

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he Italian Edge underlines the innovative and technological capabilities of Italian companies and seeks to explain their success in the global marketplace, in particular bringing to light examples that may be less known but are nevertheless important. Through 18 illustrated success stories, the Italian Trade Commission intends to promote and further awareness of Italy's expertise in these areas. I am certain that these stories will appeal to the general public, curious to learn more about Italy and of the true meaning behind the words, "Made in Italy". Many have wondered, "What is the secret to so many successful products coming out of Italy?". The answer can be found in these pages, in the technology and know-how of Italian companies, true jewels of achievement which explain why the "Made in Italy" brands are so appreciated worldwide. This publication is the result of our continued collaboration with Italy's leading financial daily, "Il Sole 24 Ore", with which

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the first volume of The Italian Edge was developed. The feedback we received from the public has prompted us to produce a second one. From research conducted together with "Il Sole 24 Ore", a multifaceted reality of Italian industry has emerged, consisting of large industrial groups and small companies alike, which operate in wide-ranging fields and throughout the globe. We have singled out several countries, in order to focus on local projects requiring special solutions and capabilities, and describe how Italian industry has contributed to their realization, offering originality, leading-edge technology and, above all, "sustainable" solutions. The underlying thread of the entire volume is, in fact, environmental sustainability. We are not dealing with projects still in the making or initiatives by start-up companies these are genuinely successful undertakings which have been fully implemented and "exported" abroad. Throughout the world, a genuine revolution is under way, which will bring a

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

radical transformation to our way of life, to how we travel, construct and manufacture respect for the environment coupled with sustainable growth based on new sources of energy. In this context, we wished to demonstrate how Italian industry as a whole has often taken the lead, through a combination of industrial innovation and tradition, in establishing a new and important stake in the "Green Economy". Which is, after all, a prime example of how, more than 20 centuries ago in our country, in Syracuse, Sicily, the "capture" and the use of solar energy started with the work of Archimedes. Needless to say, from the very beginning Italy has been at the forefront for such changes. If in the first volume we illustrated the greater realities of Italian industry, in this second volume, we have tried to demonstrate that those successes are only the tip of the iceberg, which we hope to bring fully to surface so that they may be appreciated in their entirety.

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INTRODUCTION ITALIAN EXCELLENCE: TYING THREADS TOGETHER

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Catapult and war machine plans; drawing from an original at the Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy

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he way that most people think of Italian industry is a constellation. Within Italy, countless small firms put their artisanal skills together in an everchanging and flexible fashion. The market is rewarded with a competitive price:quality ratio and the kind of know-how that’s not available in systems of mass production. This flexible system has been the cornerstone of Italian production since time immemorial. In a very 21st-century way, Italian industry has been reorienting itself. Gone are the days of factories patterned along the lines of Henry Ford’s famous model. The excellence that Italian firms achieve in sustainable technology is due to Italy’s strong business clusters. For each firm that attains international renown, there are dozens of others that toil in the background, each contributing to Italy’s success. Rather than a constellation, it’s more apt to think of Italian industry as a network of interconnected companies that interlace the boot. Each node supports the other and reinforces the whole.

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An employee of the Galerie Mennonitenkirche arranges an exhibit of the show "The Machines of Leonardo da Vinci" at the museum in Neuwied, southwestern Germany. The museum presented 35 scaled models built from computer simulations of some 500-year-old drawings by the Italian polymath. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) is known for his works as architect, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, inventor, geometer, scientist, mathematician, musician and painter

Italy’s export-focused model, long used by fashion firms, has come to the hi-tech and sustainability sectors. It’s letting them continue to beat the competition even in a recession: according to a report by EU Business, Italy’s hi-tech, innovative start-ups tend to focus on global markets. We should also consider, as regards Federmacchine (the federation that brings together Italian manufacturers of capital goods), that their members have always had an inclination towards internationalization,

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

and now are focusing their particular attention towards realizing eco-compatible production systems that permit end-users to make the most of their resources, minimizing the use of energy, raw materials and wherewithal. New government-sponsored technology districts are opening across Italy to facilitate cooperation between public and private researchers and venture capitalists. The research and development of key technologies will not only strengthen

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CREATING A SUSTAINABLE WORLD industrial research but will promote innovation in Italy’s strong small- and medium-sized enterprises – and this in turn will help Italy help the world go green. According to Italy’s Association of Renewable Energy Producers (APER), by 2020, 17 percent of all energy consumed in Italy will be produced will be biofuel. For hydropower, Italy reached a level of 20 percent in 2009 – up from 16.4 percent in 2008. With solar cells, Italy had doubled its photovoltaic cells in 2009, topping out with capacity of 850 MW, up from 417 in 2008. And the best news is in wind power. In 2009, Italy completed 1,109 MW in new installed capacity. That’s an increase of about 30 percent compared to 2008, evidence of a good constant growth rate. To date, that’s a total of 4,845 MW of wind power on Italian territory. Sunny skies and strong winds mean that Italy is a natural choice for the technologies that will come to dominate our quest for clean energy in coming years. Living on a crowded

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ENERGY EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES peninsula with much that’s worth preserving, Italian businesses have a good head start. According to the most recent data available from the Italian environmental group Legambiente, there are more than 800 Italian communities which now have an energy surplus thanks to renewable sources. With numbers like these, Italy is emerging as a leader in European green technology. Such leadership, yoked to the “Made in Italy” reputation for quality craftsmanship, can help lead the world into a sustainable future. That spirit of innovation and quality is exemplified in these pages, where we are proud to present 18 case studies that rest atop a fertile bed of research, technical knowledge, and superior quality. As you discover more about the specialized tech firms that are bringing the Italian brand to global pre-eminence, and as you read about companies that are building the machines that are creating a greener world, we invite you to think of Italy – where modern craft was born, and where Europe is being led into a greener hi-tech future.

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LEVERAGING RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

BUILDING GREEN Robotic models, part of the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, ‘Da Vinci Secrets - Anatomy to Robots' at the Sydney Town Hall, May, 2010. The exhibition featured anatomical models and body parts, interactive automatons and robotics, all based on da Vinci drawings (left) (below) One of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous designs, credited as the early blueprint for today’s helicopter. This craft is made of linen, reeds and iron thread and would have been operated by four men rotating a shaft. The model was built according to da Vinci's drawing and crafted from materials available in 15th-century Italy

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CHAPTER 1

CREATING A SUSTAINABLE WORLD INTRODUCTION 20 1.1 GREENHOUSE GASES 24 1.2 SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY 30 1.3 RECYCLING 36 1.4 POLLUTION CLEANING 42 1.5 TECHNOLOGY AND SECURITY 48


CHAPTER 1

DEMA

Technology And Security For the past 17 years, Dema has been working with its partner Alenia Aeronautica (see article) in the research that goes into making composite aircraft. The sheer size and weight of the metal that goes into aircraft production represents an enormous part of its total footprint, so the research station near Piacenza that Dema has been operating is key to this effort. In future the firm will be opening a production facility for composites in Tunisia.

Dema’s Helicopters

ENERGY RESOURCES Sustainable Mobility

Energy Resources, an Ancona-based company working in renewables since 2006, made into a reality the stuff of legend: the Tesla car. Rumored to have been a secret project of the inventor that ran on an unnamed renewable energy source, Energy Resources brought its experience in photovoltaic systems, geothermal, wind power and home automation in industrial and residential buildings to the auto industry to produce a prototype electric car that can also run off energy supplied by solar panels. With a team of over 130 renewables professionals, the company has installed 60 MW of power in the photovoltaic field and 15 MW in the geothermal field. Having achieved sales of 120 million euros in 2010, the company is newly listed on the Italian stock exchange.

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he world is going green. Awareness of the importance of sustainability allowed innovative new technologies blossom out of what were merely niche businesses a generation ago into the heart of mainstream industry. Companies the world over have learned that it’s not only correct to go green – but that it’s profitable, too. Italy, with its long traditions of artisanal labor, has not been slow to innovate when it comes to creating a sustainable world, and in fact, perhaps due to its unique position on the old continent – between east and west and north and south – it’s been quick to show off its adaptability beyond its own borders. According to a 2010 European Union (EU) report, current targets call for Italy to produce a full quarter of its heating energy requirements with renewables. In the Italian parliament, legislation is being developed for both for renewable heat and biofuels. Subsidies are already in place for bioethanol production and tax exemptions for biodiesel production. Electricity generated from hydro power

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CREATING A SUSTAINABLE WORLD gushes ahead in Italy, contributing almost 43 TWh in 2004. That’s 81 percent of total renewable energy for electricity. Geothermal electricity is grounded in second place, with a share of over 10 percent of total renewable energy for electricity. And wind power has recorded an average annual growth of 48 percent between 1997 and 2004. That capacity for wind is rising, reaching 1 125 MW in 2004, and 1 717 MW in 2005. In the biofuel sector, in terms of production capacity, Italy has made great progress, with a total installed capacity of 857 ktoe in 2006, one of the EU's highest for biodiesel production. In these first pages of The Italian Edge, you'll find out how Eni, Italy’s blue-chip oil and gas company, has brought the levels of burned-off gas – a process known as ‘flaring’ – down in Nigeria, where the company has been working for almost a half-century. Not only that, they’ve developed a way to feed natural gas, formerly burned off into the atmosphere, back into the grid to create

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

greater capacity for the Nigerians’ energy. Verona's REM Technology knows sustainability as well. Founded in 1999 by a group of renewable energy professionals, the

Fashion designer Jay Nicolas Sario of Project Runway created an original design out of recycled water bottles for the Fifth Annual Discarded to Divine event in San Francisco

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company has a high profile in hydro and solar energy in Italy, designing and managing hydroelectric plants and photovoltaic systems. You’ll read about Faam, whose twin experiences in both the battery industry and in working in China led them to create a fleet of lithium battery-powered cars that also monitor pollution in the Middle Kingdom. Also included in the show, staged in time for the 2008 Olympics, was a hydrogen fuel cell car prototype. Helping to keep the world energy efficient is also Amut, that uses an innovative process in which one bottle washes another to save water during the recycling of socalled PET bottles. One of their flagship operations is in Canada, working with a major spring water bottler. And you’ll see how far the visions of modern Italians extend when you read about Mariano Pane’s floating fleet of oceanscrubbing boats, called Globeco. Globeco took its longtime shipping experience and used it to create innovative boats active in

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Thailand, Spain and South America. These fleets suck up pollutants and oils from the water’s surface to help mitigate against invasive specie like the water hyacinth which choke off the oxygen-supply to sea life that is vital for a healthy ecosystem. Finmeccanica, Italy’s biggest aerospace company, has its Alenia branch busy working to try and reduce the emissions caused by aircraft. They’re lowering the weight of aircraft by using carbon fiber instead of traditional alloys – which cuts down on corrosion as well. Such strategies leave Alenia in a leading position for meeting new EU directives that will take airplane traffic into account in its Emissions Trading System starting in 2011. But what we profile here is just the tip of the iceberg. Innovation is all over Italy. In the transportation field there are companies like Acta Energy, that is producing an electric bike, and Microvett, that is refining an electric car. And where else but in twowheels-crazed Italy would you find a company like Ducati Energia, which is

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FLUIDOTECNICA SANSEVERINO Pollution Cleaning

working on a rider-powered hybrid bike? Realistically understanding that the car probably won’t disappear overnight, Tecnomatic is developing green automotive components. On the shores of Lake Como, Sorema has been recycling the PET in plastic bottles for over 30 years, and PET producer Mossi & Ghilsofi has made strides in recycling its own plastics. Helping to keep plastics and other pollutants out of the sea, and working with visionaries like Globeco, is Resinex, noted for its antipollution barriers. Syac, a Trieste-based firm, has saved hundreds of feet of videotape and significantly compacted archival space with its unique digital image-saving system, DigiEye 3G. Companies like these and the ones highlighted on the pages of this chapter not only create a better world but also end up saving money. Its famous artisanal products and generations of competence help give Italy the edge when it comes to sustainable solutions.

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Similar to Globeco, Bari’s Fluidotecnica Sanseverino has developed a technology that separates pollutants from seawater. Based on the ideas found in industrial filtering and maintenance, its machine, the Oilsep, has been used to great effect in Oman and Nigeria – countries where water scarcity is no joke. If water is the new oil, then Sanseverino’s complete recovery method is sitting on top of a gusher.

Globeco’s Grancevola, a surface-skimming pollution control craft

WRS Recycling

WRS Recycling, a Treviso-based company, started recycling tires in order to realize two goals: to take unsightly mounds of tires out of the environment and to use the material in other technical products. Doing this also denies the tiger mosquito – a dangerous pest in the firm’s native Veneto region – a breeding ground. This recycling effort is a thoughtful repurposing – the group started off as a branch of a steel producer called Steel. The transfer from steel crushing to plastic crushing was accomplished, according to the group’s General Manager Marco Caccin, as a result of “our years of experience in the field, our projects developed and tested for continuous improvement and our clearly defined objectives.”

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1.1 GREENHOUSE GASES FLARING DOWN IN NIGERIA ENI'S EBOCHA EXAMPLE When crude oil is extracted from the earth, it is often drawn up with associated natural gas. And if oil is produced in areas lacking gas infrastructure, the unwanted gas may be flared, releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

* Daily life in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil-producer

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An man stands near a gas flare in Idu Ogba, Niger Delta area of Nigeria (right). A tanker (bottom) carrying crude oil by the city of Port Harcourt

Nigeria, whose economy is heavily reliant on oil revenues, is the second biggest gas flarer in the world. Seriously reducing flaring and its harmful effects on health and the environment, while continuing to exploit Nigeria’s crude oil resources, is a priority for the government. For Italian energy giant Eni, flaring down initiatives have constituted a major part of its sustainability strategy for Nigeria. One recent milestone was reached in April 2010, with the completion of Eni ’s Ebocha Early Gas Recovery Project. Thanks to that project, roughly 55 million standard cubic feet per day (MMScfd/day) of gas previously flared at the Ebocha Oil Center, operated by Eni, is now compressed at a compression island. The compressed gas is then delivered through the existing pipeline system to a gas hub, where it is made available for domestic use to Nigeria’s Omoku Power Station. It is estimated the recently inaugurated Ebocha project will reduce C02 equivalent emissions by 1.27 million tons per year. With the new facility online, there is also a welcome end to the heat, light and noise that are among the other negative effects of flaring. While the new Ebocha facility has already yielded significant

environmental benefits, the project also stood out for the speed with which it was executed. The authorization process in Nigeria for projects such as these is typically a lengthy one, but the urgency of attaining environmental objectives and the recognized importance of the Ebocha Early Gas Recovery initiative in terms of sustainability led Nigerian authorities to allow construction to begin before the authorization process was fully completed in December 2009. To help speed up the engineering and construction phases, Eni also opted for a stand-alone and independent design for the compression island. Plans for the new gas compression facility were presented by

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A Nigerian woman (below) returning from farming confronts a leaking oil well in Kegbara Dere. Eni’s employees head to work on the Niger Delta (bottom left)

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Eni subsidiary Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOP) to Nigerian authorities on October 2008. The order for the main equipment in the compression island was placed in December of that year, with the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract awarded in April 2009 and construction started in June 2009. The first gas was flared down and delivered to the domestic market in April of 2010. Italian suppliers played a major role in designing and constructing the Ebocha facility. The engineering design for the compression island was carried out by Saipem Energy Services (SES), also a unit of Eni. The compressors were engineered and manufactured in Italy by GE-Nuovo Pignone, the Italian subsidiary of U.S. group General Electric. Construction activities were carried out by Saipem Nigeria jointly with Nigerian contractor Desicon. Eni has seen a steady reduction in its gas flaring in Nigeria in recent years. In 2007, Eni flared 4.7 billion standard cubic meters a year (BSCM/year) in the country, which came down to 2.9 BSCM/year in 2009. With the Ebocha project, that number was reduced even further, to about 2.25 BSCM/year in 2010. At the moment Eni is utilising, or not flaring, over 72 percent of all gas produced in the country. Eni’s efforts have been largely responsible for the overall decline in gas flaring seen in Nigeria, where total flaring was reduced from 16.2 BSCM/year to 11.9 BSCM/year in the 2006-2009 period. Eni is active in 77 countries throughout the world and has been

Eni’s technology works to reduce the flaring of gas in its Nigerian project sites (top)

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present in Nigeria since 1962. The company has approximately 78,400 employees globally and posted revenues of 83.2 billion euros in 2009. Eni’s Nigerian flaring down initiatives don’t stop with Ebocha. In 2013, the company expects to reduce gas flared in Nigeria to 0.95 BSCM/year and to use 92 percent of all associated gas. The company is committed to progressively eliminating flaring in the country and is currently in discussions with Nigerian authorities

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

for the construction of Okpai Power Plant 2, right next to Eni’s 480 MW Okpai Power Plant 1. When this new project comes online, Eni’s generation capacity at the Okpai location will double to roughly 1000 MW and account for over 30 percent of Nigeria’s total power. As was the case with Okpai Power Plant 1, the planned facility which will use feed gas that is currently flared, getting Eni one step closer to its zero flaring objective for Nigeria.

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1.2 SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY A SMILE FOR SUSTAINABILITY FAAM AT THE FOREFRONT 30


* International attention was focused on Beijing in the summer of 2008, as China was hosting the Olympic Games for the first time. Under the spotlight was not only the hospitality of the host nation, but also its ability to keep Beijing’s notoriously high levels of air pollution under control. Some athletes had threatened to boycott the event due to healthcare concerns. China was eager to not lose face and to improve its green credentials at the same time.

Cyclists (left) ride past a traditional Chinese gateway during a day murky from fog and pollution in Beijing, China. As one of the world's most polluted cities, officials had to halt construction, close heavy industries and even stop spray-painting in order to clean Beijing’s air before the 2008 Summer Olympics. (Above) Details of the vehicle Smile in the Faam plant at Monterubbiano 31


A Faam employee with a Smilevehicle in the plant at Monterubbiano (right). Young Chinese performers (below) practice their moves moments before the Games’ opening ceremony at Beijing’s Athletes’ Village Chinese workers (bottom right) do cleaning work on the top of the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, Beijing, before the Games in 2008. A drastic plan to lift the Chinese capital's gray shroud of pollution was implemented just three weeks ahead of the Games

Faam, headquartered in Monterubbiano in Italy’s Marche region and active in the production of electric vehicles and batteries, approached the city of Beijing about using its ecological utility vehicles. The city agreed sustainable mobility was a vital part of what had been billed as the “Green Olympics” and Faam’s Smile vehicle was chosen as an official Olympic vehicle. The 35 Smiles used during the Games were equipped with monitoring systems to measure pollution levels in real time. These systems were connected to a control room and allowed organizers to immediately intervene when toxins reached critical levels. According to a United Nations Environment Programmed (UNEP) assessment, the Beijing Olympics met if not exceeded many of its environmental pledges. The UNEP report noted that “significant efforts before and during the Games were focused on improving Beijing’s air quality” and that “as result, air quality improved significantly.” Helped by special measures taken during the Games, studies showed carbon monoxide (CO) fell by 47

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A Chinese paramilitary officer (below) on duty near a Beijing 2008 Olympic Games countdown clock across from Tiananmen Square, a month before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008

percent, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by 38 percent, volatile organic matter (VOC) by 30 percent, particulate matter (PM10) by 20 percent and sulfur dioxide (S02) by 14 percent. One of the Faam vehicles used in Beijing was its cutting-edge Smile H2 model, powered with a hydrogen fuel-cell and developed with the Polytechnic University of Marche in Ancona. The remaining 34 were electric vehicles, some which ran on lithium batteries. Faam, founded in 1974, has been active in China since the mid-1990s. In China, Faam produces industrial batteries at Yixing Industrial Battery Faam and also manages the technological aspects at a lithium production plant in the country, one of the world’s most important producers of lithium. Faam also has production facilities in Italy (both in the Marche and Apulia) and Uruguay. Other Faam subsidiaries can be found in France,

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Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The Faam group has 257 employees and posted revenues of about 100 million euros (139 million dollars) in 2010, double the 50 million euros seen just in 2006. In industrial batteries, it has a seven percent market share in China, six percent in the European Union (EU) and 27 percent in the Italian market. Before and after the 2008 Olympics, Faam invested heavily in lithium battery technology. Thanks to the company and its collaboration with local universities and companies like auto components manufacturer Magneti Marelli, this technology is expected to become a pilaster of the Marche’s economy. Faam sees the further development of lithium batteries as important both for the widespread diffusion of electric vehicles and for their use alongside hydrogen fuel cells for the development of extended range vehicles with autonomy up to 500 kilometers. Lithium batteries have several advantages over traditional lead batteries. They are significantly more compact and lighter - a critical factor since one of the obstacles to widespread development of electric vehicles is weight - as well as more efficient and longer lasting. Faam’s lithium battery research and development (R&D) has been carried out in collaboration with a handful of Italian universities along with Italian public research groups the National Research Council (CNR) and sustainable technology agency ENEA. R&D efforts are concentrated on perfecting the chemistry to optimize the performance of lithium batteries. While R&D will always be important, Faam’s lithium battery technology has already had several important concrete

At Faam’s Monterubbiano factory, a technician installs the dashboard of an eco-vehicle made by Faam (top). Newly-fabricated screens (right) will be fitted onto the engines’ ignition batteries

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applications besides its use in the Olympic Games’ fleet. Among these is innovative lithium traction batteries jointly developed, produced and marketed by Faam and Magneti Marelli along with their related battery control and management systems. Beijing is still getting steam out of Smile vehicles and the Chinese public has become more aware of sustainability issues. The UNEP post-Olympics environmental assessment also noted the Games “greatly increased public awareness of air quality” leading the public to continue to press for initiatives like those that improved the quality of air and life during the Olympics.

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Working on batterycharging equipment (top) Rear view of a Smile vehicle (right)

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1.3 RECYCLING TURNING TRASH INTO CASH AMUT’S ECO ANSWER Go to an eco-friendly retailer these days and you’ll see them advertise just how many plastic bottles go into making items like shopping carts and trays.

* At Amut’s Novara plant, quality control in plastic production

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(Top) Amut’s installations for producing plastic plates, glasses, dishes and cutlery using recycled material and the production line for the assembly of machinery (at left)

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Traditionally, the plastics – specifically, polyethylene terephthalate or PET – involved in this process had to be washed so much that it almost wasn’t worthwhile. But Novara-based Amut came up with a process to recycle both water and plastic that clients on both sides of the Atlantic have embraced. Ice River Springs, a bottled water company based in Ontario, was one of the first in North America to realize that by using Amut’s process at their plant that they could become ecosustainable. Amut North America’s president, Anthony Georges explains, “six years ago there was not one PET plant west of the Mississippi. And rather than create economies, plants shipped waste away.” Until the last decade, sustainability wasn’t seen as part of the bottom line, but this changed during the 2001 downturn, starting in California, where Amut sold their first North American process. After that, success cascaded, and now the company has sold its system to recyclers in Canada, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Mexico. Ice River Springs selected the Amut system because it uses minimal water, has minor environmental impact, reuses energy, and uses chemicals to the point where they lose their dangerous properties. Since adopting Amut’s technology, Ice River recycling now runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has absorbed many of the job losses that resulted from the closure of an automotive plant in nearby

Shelburne. Ice River recycles all the bottles they collect with the help of the local government and corporations, and can manufacture a bottle for half of what competitors who use virgin plastic do. What makes Amut’s process so sustainable is the way it approaches water. When the bottles are brought to a facility, first the outside of the bottles are washed. A detection process picks out the PET from metal and non-PET material bottles and the labels are removed. Then the bottles are ground to allow the perfect wash of the material inside and outside. They’re dunked in water, to separate the plastic bottle caps that weigh less than water and float to the top. A plant like Ice River Springs’ can take in five tons an hour and put out about four tons an hour, so a full ton of that is non-PET waste that can be sold. Next, the Amut process uses a patented method to wash the flakes under high temperature so that they essentially wash each other by friction, not unlike good handwashing. As Georges explains, “When you wash your hands, you don’t fill the sink, immerse them, and then throw out the water – no! You use one hand to wash the other.” It’s only at this late point that the Amut process uses clean hot water to wash the flakes. It melts off the glue, and then travels back to a filter and heat exchanger – saving energy. The hot water moves back to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers hold the national flag (left). Recycling (top) is what makes the Ice River Springs’ plant in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, special TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

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beginning of the process, so that the dirtiest water washes the dirtiest bottles. It makes sense, because at the beginning, the bottles only need to have their labels taken off and don’t need to be purified – that’s the last step. By using clean water at the end and dirty water at the beginning the process saves water, and this “closed loop” is what makes it the most eco-sustainable process on the market today. It’s fully automated, to the point where a user needs only to put the bottles in at the beginning. At the end the Amut process checks for bacteria, yeast, and fungus. This cleanliness is key. Founded in 1959 by the Milani brothers to make extrusion machines for pipes and plastics near Novara in northwestern Italy, the company today brings in 50-60 million euros (68-83 million dollars) yearly. The privately-held company is today run by the founder’s son, Pier Gianni Milani, and has offices in North America, Europe, the Far East, South America, and the Middle East. Amut supplies a support team to assist clients, and clients

Amut’s production line for the assembly of machinery (below) that fabricates materials and bottles from plastic (left)

THE ITALIAN EDGE


A technician workin on Amut’s recyclable plastics’ machinery production (at left). (Below): ‘Green’ plastic requires technology that is clean

quickly become self-sustaining because the process is easy to master. Georges says that “sustainability is teachable – when you have the ability to generate product and it’s so easy to learn, our clients are self-propelling.” Clients like California’s Global PET uses Amut technology to supply the California fruit industry with recycled baskets, and Bergamo’s Montello uses it to supply Italians with 100 percent recycled plastic house siding. When asked about what the future might hold for Amut, Georges is adamant about repurposing and reworking materials. In his view, plastic, cleaned well and reused appropriately, is better than biodegradable material. “It costs 1/10th to recycle than it does to biodegrade something.” With 6-7 billon containers a day that are being used worldwide, the necessity and wisdom of good recycling should be obvious. Amut helps makes this possible. As Georges asserts, “If you can use it again, reuse it. Waste is not garbage. Nothing is garbage. This is a raw material.”

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1.4 POLLUTION CLEANING RECLAIMING THE SEA GLOBECO'S FLEET FIGHTS OFF POLLUTION Water hyacinths float freely on the water, rising above the surface and sporting clusters of lavender flowers noted for their beauty. Unfortunately, they can double their population in two weeks and choke waterways by covering the surface, blocking out the sun and eating up all the oxygen.

* Globeco’s craft, the Giunco, seen in Naples’ port. The Captain is shown reflected in the radar screen on the ship’s bridge 42



(Above) Buddhist monks gather at Wat Muang in Angthong, Thailand, for Macha Bucha day ceremonies. On Macha Bucha Day, a national holiday in Thailand, Buddhists throughout the nation gather to worship and listen to the teaching of Buddhism. Wat Muang features a giant sitting statue of the Buddha Since the water hyacinth’s invasion has hampered the movement of boats on the river, a group of boatmen lashed 34 dinghies together to create a floating footbridge (center) A water hyacinth: pretty, but a pest (far right)

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The water stagnates; fauna dies, and mosquitoes and predatory snails thrive, passing on disease. When the invasive plant started to take over the Chao Phraya River basin in 2007, it threatened the plains, deltas, and floating markets of Bangkok – the “Venice of the East.” The markets became infested with a thick forest of hyacinths, three to four feet high, and hosts to rats and cobras. To save their markets, Bangkok’s municipal government knew where to turn: to Italy’s Globeco. Chairman Mariano Pane and his company had designed a vessel called the Grancevola, a flat-bottomed river boat fitted with a massive conveyor belt that had been tested by removing over 280,000 tons of algae from Venice’s lagoons. With a few adaptations, it could work against the scourge of the hyacinth. But there was another problem. A coup d’état the year the before had left state coffers nearly empty. Not a problem, Pane responded. Not only did he have the technical expertise, his company also had a long history of helping joint ventures get off the ground, starting in Spain where a fleet of 60 of Pane’s boats clean micropollution and more than 100 tons of inedible jellyfish out of the Mediterranean’s waters on a regular basis. Globeco has also launched joint ventures in the Philippines, South Korean, Iran, and South America – the home of the water hyacinth.

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Globeco located a publicly-traded shipyard in Thailand, Asimar, that could custom-build the hyacinth-eating boats for the Thai government, and contracted to provide technical assistance and training for operators. Competition was not an issue – as company chairman and CEO Mariano Pane recounts, “many companies can buy these machines – but only a few can maintain them.” The Thai spinoff, Ecomarine Thailand, ended up with a fleet of boats, technical assistance, and a boatload of biofertilizer to sell – the byproduct of the invasive water plants. That kind of efficiency is probably how China heard about the company – and contracted with it to clean up their shipyards before the 2008 Olympics. But that’s just another feather in Pane’s cap, because it’s not only invasive species that Globeco roots out. The company, which started in Pane’s native Sorrento as a shipping firm called Italmare, first came to international attention 25 years ago when it took the lead in cleaning up what could have been the Mediterranean’s Exxon Valdez spill – two oil tankers collided off

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Action on deck (bottom) and below (left). Giunco’s bridge instrumentation panel (right) and a flag semaphore: traditional on board navigation aid (below)

helping to keep pollutants out of the water – in Italy and beyond. By 1993, Globeco had contracted with the Spanish Department of the Environment and created a joint venture called Ecolmare Iberica. They soon built a fleet of 33 boats and licensed the technology from Globeco’s license. By this time Pane had added improvements such as a firefighter’s water cannon which can also be used to pump oxygen into the water, ridding it of toxic odors. The boats also function as floating labs that collect samples of water and monitor its chemical, physical, and bacteriological content. Today Globeco and its joint ventures have over 230 boats operating worldwide in 15 countries. Its Rome/Sorrento-based headquarter employs 50 people, and a contract with the Italian government for oil spill combating, in consortium with others, produces 25 million euros a year. ISO certified and today 100 percent privately-owned, Pane is eager to bring his company’s two and a half decades of expertise to a world in which going green has become mandatory. Especially in a country that held the world’s attention in the summer of 2010 with a catastrophic oil spill: Pane is no stranger to the US – back in the 1990s, his company worked with Pirelli to provide technical support in laying a 7000 -pound electricity cable across New York Harbor, and after the Deepwater Horizon spill, Pane was among the first to offer his services. Speaking about the opportunities for growth as the environment becomes an ever-more pressing concern, he says, “We are like the pioneers, going east to west, facing the Appalachians and bandits and going to California to find gold! We’ve done for years something that cannot be copied. Looking at the USA, we will succeed.” As for the future, Mariano Pane is a man with a vision which

the coast of Messina. Called to help, Pane sent four 36-foot vessels equipped with giant arms to attack the 125,000 gallons of crude. Within 14 hours, these strange vessels – which Pane calls Pelicans and Dolphins – had sucked up the oil, separated it from the sea water, and neutralized it. The Italian Merchant Marines promptly ordered 30 of the vessels, allowing Pane to launch a division called Ecolmare and diversify his fleet. His next adaptations to his fleet were designed to clean the sea of so-called ‘floatables’ – the plastic bags and bottles which are creating grave risks in the Pacific and North Atlantic oceans now. This year alone, Globeco’s vessel picked up 12 million square meters of floatables. Along with firms like Milan’s Resinex and Bari’s Fluidotecnica, Pane is at the fore of

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drives his environmentalism. “Three thousand years ago, the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates was fertile – now it’s desert – no life whatsoever!” he booms, before explaining that biofertilizer like the one produced by his floating labs in Thailand is capable of enriching soil, not impoverishing it. “It needs a lot of R&D,” he admits, but an application is in with the Italian government to subsidize it. Never one to stay still, Pane is in the meantime looking into graphene, which Andre Geim won a 2010 Nobel Prize for discovering. It’s a material 200 times lighter than water that can absorb oil. But how could he load it onto his innovative boats? “It’s nanotechnology,” he explains, “that can absorb any kind of material – and besides, there are no boats like ours!”

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1.5 TECHNOLOGY AND SECURITY CLEAN AIR COSTS ALENIA AERONAUTICA’S ANSWERS The globalization of the world’s economy and the ongoing development of tourism are contributing to growth in air traffic and the subsequent increase in the generation of greenhouse emissions, noise and congestion.

** Alenia Aeronautica's Monteiasi Grottaglie plant near Taranto (Apulia Region) where sections of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuselage are in production– 49


(left) The Bombardier C-Series aircraft in flight (right) A section of the Dreamliner’s fuselage at Alenia Aeronautica's Monteiasi facility near Taranto, Apulia Region (bottom) Alenia Aeronautica's Anaechoic Chamber at its TorinoCaselle plant (Piedmont Region) (bottom right) The ASTA (Aircrew Synthetic Training Aids) full mission simulator of the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft according to Eurocontrol’s most challenging scenario. In the meantime, climate change, which is caused by greenhouse gases and produces frequent extreme weather conditions, may affect air transport and airports, which are often located on coastlines or in flood plains. As part of its efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, from 2010 the European Union (EU) will incorporate aviation into its Emissions Trading System. The scheme aims at capping emissions by penalizing the most polluting industries which have to buy allowances to cover their emissions. Making companies pay for the pollution they cause is giving environment-friendly technologies a commercial edge. To boost eco-compatibility, fuel efficiency and reduce noise in the aircraft industry, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, launched the Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative in 2008. One the seven projects under the initiative is the Green Regional Aircraft (GRA) for which the Commission set ambitious efficiency targets. Noise at ground level has to be halved, CO2 emissions and fuel consumption have to be cut by 40 percent and NOX emissions reduced by 60 percent. Regional traffic is a growing segment of air transportation. The traffic of regional airlines has increased by an annual average of 8 percent in the past 20 years, twice the growth enjoyed by major airlines. Over the next 20 years, regional traffic is forecast to rise by about 6 percent a year and to represent around 50 percent of overall air traffic in 2020.

Europe is particularly attentive, partly because of its dense population, to the impact of climate change and local pollution, and it is acting to curb emissions and nuisances. Eurocontrol, the European organization for the safety of air navigation, estimates that by 2030 the number of flights could increase between 1.7 and 2.2 times in the continent compared with 2007. However, capacity on offer could actually be below underlying demand, which could increase by up to 2.7 times over the period, especially in Turkey, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The organization believes that 19 European airports could be operating at full capacity in 2030. The figure could even reach 39

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Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company, has 100 years of experience in aeronautics and is a partner in two high-profile regional aircraft projects: ATR, jointly with the European group EADS, and Superjet 100, in partnership with the Russian company Sukhoi. Alenia has a 51 percent stake, while Sukhoi owns the remaining 49 percent, in the company SuperJet International in charge of the marketing, selling, customization and delivery of the Superjet 100 in Europe, the Americas, the Pacific, Africa and Japan. The joint venture also oversees crew training and after-sale support worldwide as well as developing luxury and cargo versions of the aircraft.

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Alenia was appointed co-leader of the GRA project with EADS, but the Italian firm is the largest shareholder in the program with a 40 percent stake. Giuseppe Giordo, CEO of Alenia Aeronautica and responsible for Finmeccanica’s fixed wing aviation sector, explained that the appointment is a recognition of the company’s leadership in the manufacturing of regional aircraft and of its efforts to maintain European expertise in this field. The GRA project groups 53 partners. More than half are located in Italy and include some leading universities and small and medium enterprises that are part of Alenia’s supply chain. Alenia is carrying out research on two types of regional aircraft; one carrying 70-90 passengers and a larger model capable of transporting 100-130 people. To reach the targets set by the commission, the company is seeking to reduce by up to 8 percent the weight of the aircraft by experimenting with new alloys and composite material such as carbon fibers. By the end of 2015, the company aims to be able to produce a full-scale fuselage and the wings of the aircraft. If Alenia reckons that it is commercially viable to pursue the development of the planes, it would take a further two to three years to build prototypes. Alenia’s expertise in carbon fiber has made it one of Boeing’s main suppliers for the construction of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The company manufactures 14 percent of the plane’s structure. It also holds the patent for a special technology applied to produce for the airliner a single-piece horizontal stabilizer made in composite material. The 787 is a revolutionary aircraft because it uses carbon fibre rather than aluminum, titanium or steel for the construction of

(left, below and far right) Stages in the production of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fuselage sections (near Taranto)

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(left) Manufacture of the horizontal stabilizer for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner at Alenia Aeronautica's Foggia plant (Apulia Region) (below) Detail of the C-27J Propeller

major structural components. Previously, the use of carbon fibre was limited to moveable parts such as the flaps and rudders and the aircraft’s tail. Employing composite materials lowers the weight of the aircraft and reduces maintenance because they are more resistant to corrosion than aluminum alloys. One of Alenia’s challenges is to apply carbon fibre technology to the smaller regional aircraft because it has to reduce the thickness of the fuselage’s shell without losing the material’s resistance to hailstones or affecting soundproofing.

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CHAPTER 2

LEVERAGING RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES INTRODUCTION 2.1 GREEN POWER 2.2 ENERGY PRODUCTION

2.3 RENEWABLE ENERGY


CHAPTER 2 LEVERAGING RENEWABLE

R

enewable energy gives people hope, hope for a cleaner future, hope that global warming won’t overwhelm the planet, hope that thousands of jobs lost in traditional manufacturing can be replaced. That’s a heavy responsibility for any industry, especially one that in many regards is still in its infancy. The renewable energy industry has taken up the challenge, yet many questions remain unanswered and it is still unclear whether electricity generated from wind, sun, water and geothermal resources can indeed convert all that hope into reality.

A common thread running through all companies working on renewable energy is the ability to adapt and innovate because though humans have been tapping the power of nature in sustainable ways since the beginning of their existence, scaling up the technology while making it cost effective has always been a challenge. Though Italy was initially slow in developing some forms of renewable energy that are plentiful on the peninsula, particularly sun and wind, the country is catching up quickly. In 2009 Italy more than Solar panels are seen on the roof of the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. The panels illuminate and heat Pope Benedict XVI's weekly general audiences, held inside the Paul VI Hall

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doubled the amount of energy it gets from photovoltaic solar power to 845 megawatts, according to the Association of Producers of Energy From Renewable Sources (APER), which groups together producers of energy from renewable resources. The same group estimates that in 2009 wind power grew by a third in Italy to 4,845 megawatts while the production of renewable energy from hydroelectric power increased 13 percent to 47,000 gigawatt hours. That growth in hydroelectric power followed a 27 percent

jump in 2008. The growth in each area has translated into a jump in the overall percent of energy that Italy gets from renewable resources. In 2009, it was 24 percent compared with 18 percent the year before, according to Energy Services Management (GSE), an industry advocacy organization. With the momentum of growth at home, Italian companies are increasingly bringing their competencies in renewable energy abroad.

ENERGY SOURCES


COMER Green Power

Comer Industries provides advanced engineering systems and mechatronic solutions for power transmission, including for renewable energy applications. The Reggiolo, Italy-based company is increasingly targeting China, where it has been active for the last 20 years and set up a factory in 2007. Comer serves the wind energy market, which is booming in China, with products that control yaw (the orientation of the turbine nacelle into the wind) and pitch (the positioning of turbine blades to optimize power production). Comer – which has about 1,150 employees and earned 1.3 million euros in 2009 on sales of 241 million euros – won the Eima International 2010 Technical Innovation Award, which recognizes machinery, accessories or components that improve the jobs of agriculture workers.

“Italian companies know how to follow a client closely and meet their specific needs,” said Vittorio Chiesa, a professor and the director of the Energy and Strategy Group at Milan’s Polytechnic University. “Italian companies distinguish themselves by offering an integrated package and then remaining close to the client.” Chapter Two takes a look at some of those companies that have taken up the challenge of making renewable energy a reality. The companies are active in all aspects and all sectors of the industry and we spotlight a few that are particularly interesting and innovative around the world. Tucked away in the extreme north of Italy on the border with Austria, Leitner Technologies through its subsidiary Leitwind is using patented technology to grab the wind and bring electricity to clients globally, including across the border in Photographing the Great Temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel, Egypt 58

Austria and Eastern Europe and across the world in the U.S., Canada and India. Next stop, China. Another company that knows a thing or two about technology and its importance in keeping ahead of the competition is Enel, the Italian electricity giant. Enel has taken 100 years of experience harnessing the pockets of heat trapped below Tuscany to the desert of Nevada, which is but one point of Enel’s North American footprint that includes a wind farm in Texas with turbines that set a record when built in 2007 by reaching 105 meters into the sky. Italy is, of course, a sun-laden state so it’s no surprise that there are many companies working on turning those rays into kilowatts.


Among that group is Angelantoni, which in late 2010 won a contract to build a solar thermal energy plant in Egypt. Angelantoni is part of a group of companies that aims to have 15 percent of Europe’s electricity needs met by production in North Africa by 2050. Ambitious for sure, though only slightly so if you consider that Angelantoni bets that the sun from one percent of the Sahara Desert could produce enough electricity to meet the needs of most of the world. From the sun of the Sahara to the, well, iciness of Iceland - where Italian engineering group Impregilo built a massive dam, the largest of its kind in Europe, to trap glacier water and make electricity. The Karahnjukar Hydroelectric Project – unique for the

ECOWARE Solar Panels

Ecoware, the leading large scale turn-key photovoltaic systems integrator in Italy, has increasingly turned its attention to international markets. One of those markets is South Africa, which in the wake of the 2010 World Cup has been seeking to develop its potential in energy and other fields. Through its participation in joint ventures with local partners, Ecoware’s Johannesburg subsidiary is expected in the first half of 2011 to begin the construction of its first three South African photovoltaic plants, each with a capacity of five megawatts. Ecoware, which also has subsidiaries in Russia and Israel, believes that the South African photovoltaic market has strong growth potential.

geological and meteorological conditions confronted during construction as well as its isolated location and size – also includes about 25 miles of tunnels that carry the water to the hydroelectric plant. Leitner Technologies, Enel and Angelantoni are not alone. The list of other Italian companies using innovative technologies to produce renewable energy is long and includes Ropatec, which produces vertical-axis, small wind turbines; Solsonica, a manufacturer of photovoltaic cells and modules; wind turbine-producer Tozzi Nord; Loccioni, which works in sustainable energy; Elettronica Santerno, which designs and produces inverters for photovoltaic systems; Siac, a maker of photovoltaic inverters; and renewable energy producers Moncada Energy and Fri-El. Two of these key players are also highlighted alongside the three leaders presented here.

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2.1 GREEN POWER LEITWIND LOOKS LIVELY While quietly building a name for itself in the industry with cutting edge technology, Leitwindburst on the public scene with what has become the most famous wind turbine in the world, the Eye of the Wind. Standing 200 feet tall, it was built on Grouse Mountain for the 2010 Winter Olympic

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OF CHANGE Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. The turbine is the first ever to include an enclosed, revolving glass platform with an elevator to reach it. The clear bubble provides stunning vistas for up to three dozen people and became a major tourist attraction during the games as well as providing a big chunk of the resort’s energy needs.

* A Native American in traditional headdress, seen during the unveiling ceremony for 'The Eye of the Wind' wind turbine on Grouse Mountain during preparations for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia Left: Grooming equipment undertaking mountain management for the benefit of the area’s skiers 61


“The Today Show,” king of U.S. morning television, taped a segment there. “It doesn’t get much better than this,” swooned one anchor. She meant the view, but could as well have been referring to the blitz of well-deserved publicity for Leitwind. There weren’t many candidates when the Grouse Mountain contract was put up for bid. The project consisted of a single, massive turbine in an extremely challenging location – 1,323 meters above sea level – and few companies willing or able to shoulder the task. The giant blades, 37 meters long, had to be transported by barge, and then by helicopter, to the site. Highly complex building codes for the viewing platform, the elevator and the turbine itself were often in conflict. Anton Seeber, head of Leitwind, explains that his company's great ace in the hole and the reason he signed on to the project is that he had at his disposal expertise and years of experience of a parent company. Leitner Technologies’ core business often takes it to very high, often snowy mountaintops. Taking on a challenge like that “is the big advantage of being a family business,” said Seeber. It was in 2006 that young financier Anton Seeber returned from Philadelphia’s Main Line to northern Italy, heeding his father’s plea to join the family business. The shop, in this case, was giant Leitner Technologies in Bolzano, Italy. Seeber said he’d had enough of private equity and “was fascinated by the idea of building something.” His family had expanded from its roots in

Italy's Giuliano Razzoli reacts after winning the gold medal in the Men's slalom, at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia (top). Akiko Suzuki, from Japan, performs her free program in the Women's Figure Skating competition at the 2010 Games (right) The giant blades of a wind turbine turn in the wind on the top of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver (far right)

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real estate to acquire Leitner in 1992 and his father Michael Seeber was CEO. Anton was attracted in particular by the new, fast-growing and potentially highly lucrative wind power business, Leitwind. Anton decided to invest heavily in research and development, recruited the best and brightest and has seen sales nearly triple each year. He expanded in Italy and France, moved into Austria, Eastern Europe, including developing two wind parks in Bulgaria, worked on new projects in the U.S., Sri Lanka and Thailand. In India, he created an industry-leading joint venture called Shiriam Leitwind Limited. A year ago, the

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

partnership opened a 16 million-euro manufacturing facility in Chennai to serve the Asian market. From 2006 to 2010 the number of Leitwind employees jumped from 14 to 400, a true multinational; its work just in Italy jumped to 80 people. Revenue rose steadily from zero to 160 million euros. Cumulative installed wind turbines jumped from 2 to 119. Its Ropeways division is a leader in manufacturing and installing chair lifts, funiculars and related equipment at earpopping altitudes from the Alps to the Apennines and around the

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world. Leitner’s Prinoth unit is a top manufacturer and operator of Snow Groomers, the giant machines which push and mold snow on steep slopes. “We are used to dealing with wind. We are used to setting up and installing equipment under extreme conditions and time pressure, in very difficult locations,” Seeber said. Prinoth has also expanded into utility vehicles after acquiring the Track Machines Group from the Canadian Camoplast Company in 2009. And Ropeways designs cable cars without snow as well, like the terminal and passenger gondolas in Manizales, Colombia that carry thousands of passengers daily from the outskirts to the city center. Leitner’s other transportation systems include projects in Naples, Barcelona, Innsbruck, Austria, and a MiniMetro in Perugia, Italy. Leitner-Poma, a U.S. subsidiary, recently completed a high-profile overhaul of the Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York City. Leitner Technologies is the largest industrial concern in Alto Adige. It has over 2,000 employees worldwide spread among plants in Italy, Austria (Vitipeno), France (Grenoble), India, the U.S. (Grand Junction, Colo.) and Canada (Granby). It posted sales of 612 million euros in 2009. Seeber sees Leitwind keeping its place as one of the company’s fastest growing divisions, with revenue continuing to triple for the next two to three years.

A visitor enjoys the view from inside the spectators’ pod atop the giant wind turbine on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver (above) Another image of the viewing pod (left) as the giant blades of the wind turbine come to rest in a light wind

THE ITALIAN EDGE


Views of mountain resort transport machinery in motion at Pancheron Valtournenche in Valle d’Aosta (at left) and Ritten Renon, near Bolzano (below left) A new lift was recently installed at Champoluc resort, Valle d’Aosta (below). The Märchenwiesebahn, another state-of-the-art chairlift (top) is in operation at Schladming resort, Austria

“Most growth will come from Asia. From India, Sri Lanka, Thailand,” he predicted. “Whether you like wind turbines or not, they are the only way of producing large amounts of renewable energy. In India, two-thirds of the population either live in blackouts, or don’t have reliable forms of energy.” Closer to home, Seeber is particularly enthusiastic about a wind park the company is working on in Brenner, the historic border crossing between Italy and Austria. Beyond obvious benefits to the town, excess energy is being used to produce hydrogen for a fueling station to help create one of Europe’s first Green Highways. “Leading technology is the only way to keep ahead...” Seeber said, “ahead of that ball.”

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*

2.2 ENERGY PRODUCTION OLD WORLD NEW TRICKS


ENEL'S ENERGY GOES GREEN Could Nevada, where anything more than five years old is ancient history, learn

how to better exploit its renewable resources from an Old World company with more than a century’s experience? Enel thought so.


And so it was that Italy’s dominant electricity producer, and the second-biggest in Europe, in 2007 bought the right to develop two geothermal projects in the Silver State. Enel North America, leveraging the experience acquired in becoming one of the world leaders in the production of electricity from geothermal power, quickly finished building the two Nevada projects that went into production in spring 2009. The two projects, Stillwater and Salt Wells, are located in Fallon about 100 kilometers east of Reno and have a net capacity of 65

megawatts. Enel North America, a subsidiary of Enel’s renewable energy unit, Enel Green Power, also produces renewable energy from wind, biomass and hydro power and may soon enter the solar energy market. So far it has almost 800 megawatts of renewable capacity in the U.S. “There is huge demand in the U.S. for renewable energy and we are working towards meeting that demand,” said Toni Volpe, head of Enel North America, who has been the driver behind the introduction of geothermal activities into the company’s portfolio. Geothermal power exploits the heat trapped deep inside the Earth’s crust to move turbines and produce electricity. When superheated steam is available, it is used to turn the turbines while in the case of Enel’s Nevada plants, lower temperature steam is used to boil another liquid with a low boiling point which in turn moves the turbine. Enel, which operates in 40 countries and has 95,000 megawatts of

Enel Green’s renewable energy project (left) in Nevada is one of its global initiatives to produce electricity from geothermal power. The desert setting provides a stunning counterpoint for Stillwater’s sculptural exterior (right). A moment’s pause at the Texan site (above)

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installed capacity of which 5,900 is from renewable sources, inherited three wells in Salt Wells, but had to build the power plant from scratch and drilled six more wells for tapping the steam and reinjecting the water back into the earth. At Stillwater Enel drilled seven new wells to bring the total to 15 and inherited an old power plant that is not being used. Enel brings a century of experience exploiting geothermal power. A key part of that experience is in targeting an underground steam reservoir and then getting it to perform to the fullest of its potential. Italy in 1904 became the first country to exploit geothermal power to produce electricity with the tapping of the reservoirs in Larderello, Tuscany. Enel, which gained control of the Larderello plants in 1963 when Italy nationalized its electricity market, now produces enough electricity at Larderello to meet the needs of 2 million Italian households. “Overall the technology we are using in Nevada is the same as what is used elsewhere, but we have introduced a number of

improvements to the process that make the power plants more efficient and better able to optimize production over the next 20 years,” said Volpe who in addition to keying on geothermal has also led Enel North America’s expansion of its wind and hydropower projects. “We have better controls and can tweak each component so as to optimize production.” Volpe is also exploiting sheer size, with the two Nevada plants having the largest turbines ever built for geothermal power production when they came online in 2009. Colorado-based TIC built the turbines and Enel used mostly American suppliers to complete the two Nevada power plants. In just a few years the Italian company has become an integral part of the community of Fallon, where the power plants are located, through community outreach programs including one in which Enel teaches elementary students about renewable energy. Having come to Enel North America following a stint working on Enel’s corporate strategy, Volpe, who is Italian and got his MBA


at Columbia University, is schooled at looking at the big picture and the long term and that is exactly what he is looking to achieve in the U.S. Not content with Enel’s success in Nevada, where it sells the renewable energy to NV Energy, the state-owned electricity provider in Nevada, Volpe is seeking geothermal production to the

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east in Utah and to the west in California. Enel’s other renewable assets in the U.S. include the Snyder Wind Farm in north-central Texas where 63 megawatts of power are produced using 105-meter tall turbines that were the tallest in the U.S. when built in 2007. The stronger wind at the higher altitude more than offset the added cost of the steel and other material

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Texan fields (above) are energy-rich. Enel's wind farm harnesses a powerful energy source - with no underground drilling needed to build the taller turbine. The Snyder Wind Farm might sport the tallest and perhaps most visually stunning turbines in the U.S., but it is not the only Enel wind project in North America to have a superlative stuck next to its name. In Kansas, Enel also runs the Smoky Hills Wind Farm that with its 155 turbines is the largest wind project in Enel’s

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worldwide portfolio. In the U.S. we are present in multiple technologies because that makes sense in a country which has all sorts of potential renewables,� said Volpe. Potentials that Volpe and his team are ready to make the most of as they use a bit of old world ingenuity to shake up the new world.

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THE SAHARA POWER ANGELANTONI SEES THE LIGHT The potential is breathtaking. A power station occupying just one percent of the Sahara Desert’s surface could produce enough solar energy to power most of the world, according to Federica Angelantoni of Italy’s Angelantoni Industries.

* At Angelantoni’s Massa Martana plant, a technician inspects its patented receiver tubes 72



(At left and below) The manufacturing line of Angelantoni’s patented receiver tubes and (facing page) dunes in the Sahara desert At Angelantoni’s Massa Martana facility, detail of the climactic chamber instrumentation (center) A plant that big is clearly unfeasible, for a whole host of reasons. But the fact is that forward-thinking companies around the globe are pinning their hopes on the heat and sun of North Africa to supply Europe’s clean energy needs. No nation is as well placed as Italy, which, after all, is a bridge to North Africa. And Angelantoni, based in Massa Martana, Umbria, plans to be front and center. In September 2010, the company won a landmark contract in Egypt for a new thermodynamic solar plant that could be the first of many in a region ripe for development. An ambitious new initiative called Desertec, backed by a powerful group of European companies and other entities, aims to supply 15 percent of Europe’s electricity needs from North Africa by the year 2050. Construction in Egypt will start next year and run for four years. The country has been among the most aggressive in the region on solar energy – this will be its second major plant – making it a decisive training ground for the Desertec initiative. As Desertec moves ahead, power stations could sweep through as many as 19 countries. Angelantoni’s seat at the table is assured by its proprietary technology – science that led to the founding of the company several years ago and to its first major commissions. Archimede Solar Energy is cornerstone of Angelantoni’s fast-growing renewable energy division. It makes a new generation of receiver tubes, which are key components for thermodynamic solar power plants. The tubes are licensed by ENEA, Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. Italian Nobel prizewinner Carlo Rubbia developed the complex and phenomenally effective theory behind Archimede’s product. Archimede is the first to make and patented the prototype based on Rubbia’s design. It installed the first of these pipes in a high-profile Enel solar plant in Sicily. The plant, called Archimede, began operations in July 2010. Tubes produced by Archimede operate at high temperatures – above 550°C – and use molten salts. The high heat and the use of the salts as the heat transfer medium is the winning formula. “Archimede is the only company that can make (the pipes) with the stability of the component” at such a high temperature, said Archimede’s business development chief, Paolo Martini. Archimede tubes ensure maximum sunlight yield – that is, maximum absorption and minimum emission or pollution. Archimede's technology attracted the attention of Germany's Siemens which offered to supply both logistical and financial help.

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By combining their technology, the two companies say they can boost efficiency and reduce the cost of solar power - as they are doing in the production of solar receiver tubes at Massa Martana. Starting in early 2011, the plant will have an annual production capacity of about 75,000 solar receivers, which is slated to nearly double to 140,000 per year. The tubes will be in demand as Desertec unrolls. Initially launched first as a non-profit foundation in January of 2009, it aimed to promote the global concept "Clean Power from Deserts" all over the world. The domain of scientists early on, it’s taken wing with an army of blue-chip firms, countries and other entitles getting plans down on paper, a timeline and funding.

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The problem has been that “emerging markets like North African or South America have environmental conditions for (solar energy) but don’t have the financial resources or inventive politics to promote the big decisions you need to adopt the technology,” said Martini of Archimede. But he said that’s changing. “India, Africa Chile, Brazil – all in the Sunbelt. All the consumption is in the north of the world, all the solar radiation is in the south. That means that if we can harness it, we can invert the logic of the (global) economy. The south will be the supplier of the north.” Privately held Angelantoni has about 130 million euros in annual revenue and over 750 employees spread over eight

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production facilities in Italy, Germany, France, India and China. The company founded its business in 1932 in the refrigeration sector and over the years became known in two main industrial fields – before its newest addition, renewable energy. Since 1952, under the ACS brand, Angelantoni has produced environmental test chambers for all types of tests on materials, components and finished products, working in close cooperation with research institutions, universities and industrial partners. After its first space simulator in 1988, ACS became one of the three leading suppliers to the international aerospace industry. It also manufactures test benches and crash test systems for the automotive industry through its BIA brand, and electrodynamic shakers through its TIRA brand. Some 80 percent of the revenue from the testing division comes from outside of Italy. The Life Science division, with over half of

its sales from outside the country, specializes in cold equipment for healthcare and biotechnology. In 1961, Angelantoni introduced in Europe the first mechanical freezer able to run below -100 degrees celsius. Under the AS brand, the company has marketed some extremely innovative systems such as HEMOSAFE for preserving and remotely distributing blood bags and SMARTFREEZER, a robotic cryobank. Those two businesses are still doing the heavy lifting for Angelantoni. But renewable energy is a vote for the future, and it’s clearly caught the company’s imagination. In May of 2010 Archimede received the Sapio Award for Italian Research, given annually for research and innovation by a panel of leading scientists and academics. “We think this field is growing. It’s became a kind of passion, not just another business,” said CEO Gianluigi Angelantoni.

At Angelantoni’s Massa Martana plant, a solar energy collection installation on site

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2.3 RENEWABLE ENERGY THE ROCK EATER IMPREGILO'S “BORING” BUSINESS Engineering doesn’t usually make gripping television. But when a 680-ton tunnel-boring machine nicknamed Rock Eater finally blast through its last chunk of earth in eastern Iceland, an elated team of workers led by Italy’s Impregilo saw a moment to cheer and break out the bubbly.

* Impregilo’s Karahnjukar Hydroelectric Project, in Iceland 78


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National Geographic’s “MegaStructures: Rock Eaters of Iceland” filmed the machine’s nine-mile odyssey in pitch darkness, up indistinguishable from down, that ended successfully just days before the winter freeze set in. And the winter freeze in Iceland is no joke. “The construction schedule was very tight, and obviously the weather conditions were very harsh,” said Gianni Porta, Impregilo’s project manager of the Karahnjukar Hydroelectric Project for which the company built a massive dam and a series of tunnels. Powerful advanced models of Tunnel Boring Machines are an example of cutting-edge solutions that Impregilo brought to the table, said Porta, who is now based in South Africa, and helped it win the contract amidst lively international competition. The dam, the largest of its kind in Europe, was built to trap glacier water from the river Jokulsa a Dal. Some 25 miles of underground tunnels carried the water to a new hydroelectric plant entirely carved out from the inside of a mountain. Another technical innovation the company proposed, said Porta, was delivery of the embankment material for the construction of the dam with belt conveyors. Impregilo used its own machine, called “The Hulk,” to spread half a million tons of liquid concrete over the surface of the dam, which is as big as two football fields.

This stunning aerial view shows the vast scope of Impregilo's Icelandic dam construction project (left). Below ground, the challenges were no less severe (above) TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

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Impregilo, based in Sesto San Giovanni near Milan, is Italy’s largest construction group and among the foremost civil engineering contractors in the world. With annual revenue of 2.7 billion euros in 2009, it operates in more than 30 countries. Impregilo was an obvious partner. Since the early 1900s, its four component companies – Girola, Lodigiani, Impresit and Cogefar – helped build some of the key road, rail and hydroelectric infrastructures in Italy and around the world, spurring economic development and enhancing Italy’s international image. The company in its current form was born in 1995. It works on five continents and has 20,000 employees. The company’s projects have ranged from the salvage of the

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Abu Simbel Temples in Egypt in the 1960s, to the Tarbela Dam in Pakistan in the 70s, to Istanbul’s second Bosphorus Bridge in 80s, Switzerland’s Gotthard Tunnel, a high speed railway between Bologna and Florence, Turin and Milan to a landmark 2009 agreement awarding Impregilo and its partners a 3.2 billiondollar contract to help enlarge the Panama Canal. Over the past year, Impregilo has inked agreements in Colombia, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Abu Dhabi among others. The company is building a landmark suspension bridge over the Strait of Messina to connect Sicily with mainland Italy. In the U.S. it’s working on a water transport tunnel system for

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the city of Las Vegas, moving water from Lake Mead, one of the nation’s largest artificial lakes south east of the city. But the Karahnjukar project in Iceland remains unique given the complex geological conditions, subzero temperatures and isolated location, along with its sheer size and the significance of the plant to the nation as a whole. The main tunnel was cut out in sections by three Rock Eaters operating underground that had to meet head to head and connect their tracts with precision despite operating in darkness underground, without the benefit of GPS, since satellites can’t penetrate rock. The ground is full of basalt, one of the hardest rocks on the planet and temperatures sometimes fell to 25 degrees below zero. Well over 1,000 foreign workers, of dozens of nationalities, were shipped in, housed, and fed to provide the immense manpower necessary. The 1.3 billion-plus dollar project was commissioned by Iceland’s national power company, Landsvirkjun. The powerhouse’s 690 megawatts capacity – more than half of Iceland’s total and enough to power all of Washington, D.C. – went to fuel a new aluminum smelter being built just north in Reydafjordur by U.S. company Alcoa. The plant was seen locally as a crucial way for Iceland to take advantage of a reliable, abundant and fixed-price source of electricity; to support exports; and to help the country diversify away from a shrinking fishing industry. Plans to harness the rivers of eastern Iceland for energy had been discussed, and then shot down for years since the 1970s. Several international companies had tried to build a metal plant at Reydafjordur that would be powered by a hydroelectricity project similar to the Karahnjukar. All failed because of opposition to the project until Alcoa along with the Government of Iceland and Landsvirkjun committed to the massive undertaking in 2002. The project took half a dozen years to complete and earned a place in the Tunneling and Dam Construction Hall of Fame. Along with its grand construction works, Impregilo is a global player in concessions, operating a wide range of activities from highways, energy generation from renewable sources, water treatment and distribution, hospitals and airports. It is the biggest highway and logistics operator in Latin America, particularly Brazil. In environmental engineering, Fisia Italimpianti is a leading international contractor in seawater desalination and treatment with more than 40 plants completed producing more than 40 million cubic meters of drinking water, primarily in the Middle East. Fisia Babcock Environment is a world leader in the design and construction of waste-to-energy treatment plants and technologies for the purification of industrial flue gases.

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Impregilo’s latest financial report noted that 75 percent of the company’s portfolio was outside of Italy. In its breadth, experience, organization and history of technical prowess Impregilo has earned a place at the head of the table, a major player in moving people and goods, safeguarding the environment, and developing the infrastructure of nations around the world now and for years to come.

(above) Work on the enlarged Panama Canal, a project for which Impregilo is one of a consortium of infrastructure-building experts (left) The Bologna-Florence hi-speed rail link in progress

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CHAPTER 3

ENERGY EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES INTRODUCTION 3.1 AEROSPACE

3.2 WATER CONSERVATION 3.3 MANUFACTURING AND OPERATING


CHAPTER 3 ENERGY SEDA Packaging

Naples is the home of some of Italy’s best ice cream and coffee. Finding the right package for that tasty gelato and keeping the coffee hot was just a couple of the challenges that the family-run Seda company had to take on. The principle for keeping something hot, or keeping something cold is the same: insulation. Seda perfected the double wall cup or container so that people could enjoy hot coffee (or cold ice cream) without being scalded. The air gap between the two walls ensures that heat (or cold) is kept in and the materials used are strictly environmentally-friendly. Seda is now a household name in the food service (in particular in Canada) where sustainable packaging is vital. Their artful paper and plastic is recycled, and their plastic and flexible packaging takes advantage of sustainable solutions as well. In the region, Goglio is also another major player. New requirements for reduced paper and packaging waste and ever-tightening recycling and re-use targets are pushing European packaging and printing industries ahead, particularly in terms of reduction of waste and CO2 emissions. According to the Italian Manufacturers Association of Machinery for the Graphic, Converting and Paper Industry (ACIMGA), in 2010 China became the main destination market for Italian machinery for the first time, with the USA in second place.

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ompanies that build rockets, form metal, deal in ash and the hazardous chemicals used in tanning may seem unlikely candidates for environmentalists. But in an era where green has gone big, they’re at the cutting edge of it. In this chapter, you’ll read about how some of Italy’s most versatile and nimble producers of specialized products for heavy industry have ended up developing solutions that are essential for the production of the kinds of efficient energy that the world will come to rely upon. Heavy industry will have to lead the way in a greener Europe, and in 2009 Italy was part of a bloc of EU countries that agreed to tighten up sulphur and nitrogen emissions as well as the release of dust particles, asbestos and heavy metals into the environment. That same month, Bari hosted the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Protection conference, giving a voice to both researchers and practitioners around the world who practice sustainable energy and environmental protection. The EU law put many industries together under one umbrella. That’s why this chapter

Julia Roberts eats gelato in “Eat Pray Love”. Here’s the trivia: the cup was made by Seda (Courtesy Sony Pictures)

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EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES includes companies like Promau Davi, renowned for its precision plate-rolling technology, makes cones, cylinders and sheets of metal smooth and perfect enough for NASA’s latest rockets and space vehicles. Their energy-efficient machines do this without wasting lubricant. Moreover, they use that same precision to produce massive, pre-formed wind towers for a Danish company that’s a world leader in wind power. That’s renewable energy – no assembly required. The same Italian company that’s responsible for helping India’s burgeoning space program literally get off the ground, FOMAS, has also brought its unique steelmaking know-how to the turbine and wind rotor industry. They manufactured the parts for a geothermal plant in Tuscany that’s the first of its kind in the world. Outside Italy’s borders, they’ve worked on a solar plant in Spain, and a hydroelectric plant – the biggest in South America – in Brazil. Magaldi took the idea of a conveyor belt with replaceable parts and refined it till it was indestructible – literally. Their belts, designed

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DENVER

Marble Machines Denver’s stone and glass finishing machines represent, as the company puts it, the human side of high-tech. The company recently adopted an eco-friendly policy, and Adolfo Fabbri, the firm’s technical manager, points to the compactness of the firm’s machinery as one aspect of its eco-friendliness. But it’s not only that. Denver’s stone and glass finishing machines also use a monocoque chassis constructed in a single process and have engines that can be used for continuous cycles of work, not just for peaks of power. Their ease of maintenance and extreme reliability means that Denver’s machines use less electricity, water and air than the average. As Fabbri says, “every euro invested in new machinery must equal efficiency, usefulness and profit." Other companies with similar expertise are Ghines and Fraccaroli.

SALVAGNINI Machines Tools

Vicenza’s Salvagnini brought revolution to the sheet metalpunching industry by reducing the time needed to finish product. Now they’re applying that same efficiency to reducing consumption. Their S4X machine uses a hydraulic system that, thanks to an innovative redesign, reduces consumption by more than 30 percent. Component by component, its chiller, which uses green gas, is much smaller, motors have been made more efficient, and digital valves inside its shear unit only activate it when necessary, thus reducing the amount of oil consumed. To boot, Salvagnini now uses only metal panels in both its machines and for its main command console, and they have switched from solvent- to water-based paint, eliminating the organic solvents and colorants that contain heavy metals, greatly reducing the chemical risk to all those who use the product. Equally innovative and efficient in this field are Maus and Galdabini.

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to withstand the temperature of a blast furnace, take away the ash from coal-fired power plants and cool it down – without using a drop of water. Now installed in every coal-fired plant in Italy, the amount of water they’ve saved the planet numbers in the millions of gallons. They’ve brought that technology to India’s ever-growing power plant, and with an eye towards the future, they’ve constructed Italy’s largest photovoltaic plant in their home, sunny Salerno. No visit to Florence is complete without a fine piece of handmade leather, but what about how that leather gets tanned? Tuscan residents Italprogetti were no strangers to the dangers of the sulphide residues left behind in traditional wood-drum tanned leather, so they reinvented the drum, now standard in the leather industry. Theirs, which last fifty years, keeps sulphides out of waste water and guarantees that trees need not fall in order to produce the beautiful leather their region is known for the world over. But heavy metals and fine leathers aren’t the only industries that are going green. Up in Trento, Optoi Group produces microelectronic packages, silicon sensors and micro-systems. In 2007 the group launched Optoi Green in response to increasing market

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requests for sustainable development. Now, they’re developing photovoltaic modules and multi parametric probes that check for water quality – bringing a new technology to the age-old purity of water from the Italian alps. Keeping the cold out has been Belluno’s Clivet focus for the last 20 years. Their new Gaia heating system saves 50 percent more water than a condensation boiler, and in addition gets three-quarters of its energy from the immediate environment – ground, water, air or sun. The remaining quarter can come from the mains or even from solar panels. In addition to improving air quality, the company is dedicated to reducing consumption and minimizing impact. They use ecological refrigerants and do not release CO2 directly into the environment. In the same sector Italy also offers Bergamo’s Robur, which reduces environmental impact with energy-efficient, gas-fired heaters and coolers that use up to 40 percent air, water or ground-sourced energy. Research is key to their total quality approach, and as such they invest 7 percent of their turnover back into R&D. Clean energy is good business for Brescia’s Turboden, whose biomass cogeneration, waste heat recovery, small combined cycles,

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MECCANICA NOVA

Machines Tools

Meccanica Nova is leader in making grinding systems for the automotive, aircraft, mechanical and bearing industries, also operating an American branch in Michigan. The family-owned firm, which has operated since 1937, devotes substantial resources to R&D, and reinvests profits back into the company. So it’s only natural that this innovation should embrace the environment. In addition to parts for wind-energy turbines, many of the components it produces are used in fuel efficient and low emission engines. In 2008, the roof of the company’s Bologna factory and headquarters was outfitted with 3,425 photovoltaic modules, capable of developing 648kWp of maximum peak output. Per year, that’s an estimated 738,720kWh/yr of clean energy. At the time of writing, it was already generating over 1430.000 MW/h of clean energy, equal to 26811.6 kilos of CO₂ emissions reduced.

FLAINOX

Textile Machinery

Providing dyeing and finishing technology for well-known fashion brands like Benetton, Luisa Spagnoli and Marie Claire, Biella’s Flainox, together with Saspe, are constantly looking for ways to reduce the water, stream and chemical emissions associated with their industry. For over forty years, Flainox’s rotary machines have been at the forefront of Italy’s textile industry, and in 2010 its NRP/NRG dyeing machine was certified green under Kyoto protocol standards, reducing CO2 by 23 percent. Flainox’s sustainability mission covers a whole range of products, including yard dyeing and the machines that dye and finish delicate weaves and knits. The company recently gave a presentation on ‘true green’ innovation and technology in Shanghai.

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geothermal and solar thermodynamic conversion has been bought by both public and private alike. The high value these systems offer means they pay for themselves in less than a decade – or less than three years for big users. Warming things up is one industry that seems ripe for saving energy, but what about keeping heat from escaping from the very conduits that make it possible? That’s what Termoresine, located outside Milan, has been doing since 1980 with electrical insulation for low- and medium-voltage lines. Next step is moving into thermal insulation and outdoor coating: it recently applied circuit breaker and switchboard insulation to the circuits that keep Italy’s extensive railways functioning – itself an important way to reduce emissions. Based outside Pordenone, Intermek’s precision mechanics business has been growing steadily since 1972. Now its expertise with metals is serving the burgeoning wind power industry in Italy. The company’s latest spin on it is a domestically-produced wind generator that a single household can use. Intermek’s Maia subsidiary is producing these small wind turbines in hopes of fanning more renewable wind energy production

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across northern Italy’s wind-swept plains. Companies such as these, Giuliani Tecnologie, Torielli and the ones you’ll find in this chapter’s highlighted excerpts show that in spite of its own scarce resources, Italy has produced generations of experienced innovators committed to keep our world clean and safe. Now as a modern Italy turns its gaze to countries like India and Brazil, we see that the old world is at the leading edge of efficient energy technology. The artisanal touch may come from the old world, but Italian sustainability and innovation is purely the stuff of the future. Exports to China, that have increased even in times of crisis, have also helped the Italian industries of Federmacchine (which represents the manufacturers of capital goods intended for industrial and handicraft production processes) to weather the global economy's last few difficult years. With 6,000 companies and around 180,000 employees, the Italian capital goods manufacturing industry is typical of the country’s industrial structure: businesses that connect together in a linked network which allows the sector to flourish in the international market with ongoing investment in research and innovation.

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

OMS IMPIANTI Plastic Machinery

Any visitor to Sicily will remember the delicious almond nougat and dried fruit-based and marzipan treats native to the island. Catania’s OMS Impianti has been producing machines that mix, cook, extrude, cool, cut, coat and sprinkle Sicily’s most famous crumbly and soft sweets since 1970. Their boilers, extruders and cutters operate with zero impact on the environment and their long-term experience make them leading players in the confectionery industry. In addition to Sicilian sweeties, OMS Impianti packages candy snack products for different clients throughout Europe.

SAVIOLA Woodworking

The Saviola Group, based in Viadana, Mantua, has been making wood panels for over 40 years. And they’ve been green since 1997, the year they started using 100 percent recycled wood. With 20 companies active all over Italy as well as in Argentina, Belgium and Germany, the 1700-person group also brings innovation to research in chemistry, paper and laminates, foils and edge-banding, particle-boards and semi-finished panels and furniture. Every year Saviola collects 1.5 million tons of recycled wood, saving the equivalent of 10,000 trees every day. That’s four million trees a year – which brings them 900 million in euros of turnover.

ALTA

Aerospace Founded by a group of researchers from Italy’s prestigious University of Pisa, Alta works in the aerospace sector. A small- to medium-sized enterprise that’s owned by its key players, the 68 person-strong firm develops, manufactures and markets advanced space propulsion systems in central and southern Italy. To help clean up the environment, Alta has begun to develop thermal plasma reactors, which can be used to treat waste from incinerator ashes, asbestos, the leather and paper industry and biomedical waste.

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3.1 AEROSPACE ITALY’S STELLAR METAL SHOP DAVI AND NASA'S SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP 92

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* In 2009, NASA’s first Ares test rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA plans to retire the space shuttle next year after nearly 30 years of service. The Aresstyle rocket will represent the future of the American space program – a return to the era of the multi-stage rockets of the Apollo space programs. Atop the Ares launch vehicle will sit the Orion spacecraft – similar in appearance to the famous Apollo command modules, but much more sophisticated. To withstand the enormous pressure of the launch and to be as aerodynamic as possible, its surface must be perfectly smooth and riveted together with maximum solidity.

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The Ares I rocket (right) is specifically designed to launch the Orion Crew Vehicle. Orion is intended as a crew capsule, similar in design to the Project Apollo capsule, to transport astronauts to the International Space Station, the Moon, and eventually Mars. Ares I is a two-stage rocket designed to launch an Orion crew capsule into Low Earth Orbit On page 92 and 95, workers prepare the crew module mock-up in NASA’s Langley hangar

With temperatures reaching up to 4000 F, speeds of Mach 4.76 and pressure at 3 Gs, there is no room for error. For a perfect fit, the metal sheets that make up the cone, body, and cylinders of the spacecraft have to be formed and rolled with incredible precision on a machine called a plate roll. American, German and Japanese companies all wanted a part in the project, but when it came time to award bids, there was only one machine shop in the world that measured up to NASA’s exacting standards: Italy’s Promau Davi. Promau Davi’s American unit supplied the space agency with two of the company’s plate rolls, machines that can handle sheets of metal that are 10 feet by one and a half inches, to shape cylindrical fuel cans, the Ares rocket body, and the Orion cone sections. When asked why NASA chose Promau Davi’s machine to help them build the space vehicles, President Orazio Davi offered three reasons: “we were chosen for the sturdiness of our products, our high accuracy and our exclusive software. No one else could satisfy these requirements.” Founded by the Davi family in 1966 to make precision machine tools (“Promau” comes from Produzione di Macchine Utensili – “Machine Tool Production”), the company is based in a part of Italy where the standards of precision machinery are at their highest: Emilia-Romagna, home to Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati and Maserati. In the past five years, the company has increased its manufacturing facilities by 200 percent, its number of employees by 250 percent and its sales are up 300 percent. Such growth is largely due to its innovation in plate rolls that are easy to operate but that sacrifice nothing when it comes to quality or precision. Machines that only require one operator are attractive to buyers who need to keep personnel costs down. Brisk sales mean that last year, according to the Association of Italian Machine Tool, Robot, and Automation Manufacturers (UCIMU - SISTEMI PER PRODURRE), half of all plate rolls produced in Italy were produced by Promau Davi at their 140-employee facility in Cesena. That outstrips other countries’ performance, and also means that Promau Davi produced as much as all the competition put together. Last year the company posted 60 million dollars in sales, and exported 95 percent of what they

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NASA employees inspect the crew module mock-up after many panels were temporarily fastened to the existing hardware for a fitness check of the Orion Pad (right). Langley’s engineering technicians (bottom) continue work on the simulated Orion crew module. Mounted onto the top of the mock-up is the PA-1 Forward Bay Structure - the component that will hold parachutes used in the abort test to slow the crew module for landing The crew module mock-up was unloaded in Langley’s hangar for verification testing (facing page)

made. The company also operates a North American unit in Love Park, Illinois that employs a staff of 14, stocks over 500,000 dollars in spare parts inventory, and gives demonstrations and seminars at a 13,000-square-foot training center. To get an idea of what a plate roll is, imagine a giant pasta machine, the kind that no Italian kitchen would be without – two large rollers that a flat sheet of metal is fed through. The two plate rolls grip the material firmly and roll it back and forth, curving and shaping it to meet exact specifications. The ones made by Promau Davi are built totally differently than any of the other ones being used today. As Orazio Davi explains, “90 percent of plate rolls use linear guides and need frequent maintenance. Ours require none – there are no lubrication points. Others must be cleaned.” A precision laser system controls radial motion – an innovation that was developed per NASA’s request. But that’s not all the innovation the company does. “Our plate roll is digital – which means that all the movement, all the parts of the machine, and all the diagnostics are controlled on-screen by software that we developed,” says the official. With a track record of four years with no mistakes, this advanced proprietary software is another reason that Promau Davi can satisfy high-demand clients such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, McDonnell Douglas, and Ford – just to name a few. Promau Davi’s sophisticated CAD, numerical control and assembly isn’t strictly limited to the aerospace field, though. Presciently recognizing that the world of power will tend only to

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get ‘greener’ in the future, the company partnered with Denmark’s Vestas – the world’s leading producer of wind turbines – over 15 years ago. The idea was to take a plate roll and customize it for rolling out wind towers efficiently. Their research led them to develop one machine that, with only one operator, would roll a complete tower section 10 feet high two inches thick, and 16 feet in diameter is just under 15 minutes. This efficiency has lead Promau Davi to become the go-to shop of choice among the

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entire wind market today – a market that’s only going to get bigger. With Dun and Bradstreet’s highest possible rating three years running, numerous patents under its belt, a premium on safety and user-friendliness, and reliability that America’s space agency can count on, there’s no question that Promau Davi’s innovations are pushing it towards the stars. Literally – NASA launches the Orion spacecraft in 2016.

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ACHIEVING CRITICAL MASS FOMAS GROUP, ITALY'S HARD-CORE METAL EXPERTS Part of India’s debut on the world stage has been the ramping-up of its space program in the last decade. Although India started launching satellites in 1980, they were a lightweight and experimental series called Rohini that supported civil applications such as communications and weather forecasting.

* At Fomas’ Osnago factory, a view of its 10,000-ton forging press 99


By the 1990s, the Indian government wanted to get into earth observation satellites – which, at 4.5 tons, are a heavy load to get into orbit, requiring heavier rockets with high-strength parts forged from titanium and aluminum alloys. And because of the intense national pride associated with such an operation, as well as for practical reasons, the Indian Space Research Organization insisted on going with indigenously-produced components. That’s where FOMAS came into the picture. The Italian group operates India’s biggest private open die forging and ring rolling company, called Bay Forge, Ltd. Active in Chennai, India since 1996, Bay Forge won a tender in 2001 against three other companies (one of them also Italy-based) to supply the Indian Space Research Organization with open-die forgings and seamless rolled rings. It’s these rings and forgings that hold together India’s unique Polar/Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV/GSLV) when they blast off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India’s Cape Canaveral. And sometimes – such as in 2007 – they carry Italian satellites as well. FOMAS was founded in 1956 by a professor of metallurgy at the Engineering University of Bologna, Gastone Guzzoni, and was originally a steel trading company. At that time, not a lot of specialized steel and alloy was being produced in Italy, and an early FOMAS helped industry find these alloys through international trade, mainly with Britain. But Guzzoni's vision led him to start forging supplies on his own – FOMAS means “Forgiatura moderna accai speciali” in Italian – or “Modern Forging/Specialized Steel” - and by 1969 he was able to deliver his first reinforced component to a nuclear power plant – a field that the firm has worked in since then. Today, FOMAS is a group of seven companies with over 1300 employees worldwide, headquartered in Osnago in Lombardy, about 20 miles northeast of Milan. In addition to its production in Italy, the company has factories in France, China and India.

(top) At Fomas’ Osnago facility - transporting a forged part. Checking a forged component’s dimension (big picture). Water cooling the forged part (bottom right)

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The company has two divisions, one for Open Die Forgings and one for Rolled Rings. The Open Die parts are mainly for power generation (conventional, renewable as well as nuclear) and oil and gas; the rings can be found in conventional energy applications but also in wind power; as well as in gears and specialized ball bearings – like those in high speed trains, car transmissions, tunneling equipment and, of course, in the aerospace industry. FOMAS is also an active supplier of green power solutions. In Lardarello, Tuscany, where the first geothermal power plant in the world was established in 1904 and today is still among the largest of this kind, they supply the rotors for turbines. In Spain, they’re

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also making parts for boilers and turbines that are used in solar thermal power generation. The company is providing parts for hydroelectric plants, especially in Brazil which has among the world's largest. And in keeping with their roots, FOMAS hasn’t given up on nuclear research. It is actively producing forgings for ITER – the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, a prototype fusion reactor under construction in the south of France that has brought together efforts from India, the European Union, China, the United States, Russia, Japan and Korea. The project fits into the company’s vision of new technologies, because, as Jacopo Guzzoni, the company's Vice President and CEO explains, “we believe that among our duties we must bring our experience and knowledge to support future sustainable energy sources.” FOMAS is an excellent example of how Italian business, once perfecting its know-how and technology at home, has successfully exported not only the parts but also the skills needed to produce them, abroad. For example, prior to the opening of the Bay Forge Ltd. plant in 1996, India imported most of its high technology forged parts – just at Italy had from Britain a generation before. “Today,” Guzzoni continues, “those types of components are produced in our Bay Forge plant and most of the material we use is local.” This is one of the reasons that Bay Forge’s Indian-made products were attractive to the Indian space agency. “Of course we can and do deliver abroad - with major customers in Europe and USA,” he adds. Among their references, FOMAS has some very interesting

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customers in the pipeline. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has contracted with FOMAS to supply pure iron parts for magnets built in Italy’s Institute for Nuclear Physics lab at Gran Sasso. Those magnets will help identify exactly what’s in a neutrino beam sent under the earth from CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron in Geneva some 500 miles away. The goal is to see if the mysterious neutrino has any mass. As Guzzoni says, “we’re recognized for being open to any critical interest or exotic application from around the world – whatever is challenging is our cup of tea.” Let’s hope the mass stays critical.

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (center) takes off from the space center in Sriharikota, India, in 2009. The rocket was carrying an Indian remote-sensing satellite and six smaller ones, all of them foreign-made. The Indian satellite’s mandate was to help spot fishing zones in the sea by monitoring ocean temperatures. (Above) Spectators gather as India's PSLV rocket takes off. (Far left) The 10,000-ton forging press seen from FOMAS’ central control station

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3.2 WATER CONSERVATION KEEPING ASHES COOL MAGALDI'S METHOD SAVES WATER In the late 1950s, as India began its transformation into an industrial nation, the West Bengali city of Durgapur underwent radical changes. Factories sprang up in areas of new development, taking advantage of the proximity of two great rivers, the Damodar and the Ajar, and nearby coal reserves.

* Magaldi’s Buccino factory, in Salerno province. View of the plant with MAC (Magaldi Ash Cooler) system components 104



Power plants gave rise to factories churning out glass, graphite, cement, fertilizer, and the state’s largest steel plant. But over time, the industry took its toll on the water supply. Even as water shortages became common, India’s “Steel City” demanded more power, and feeling the heat, in 2005 the government of West Bengal signed off on the construction of another power plant. Coal-fired, it would produce the 300 megawatts (MW) needed to keep local industry going. One major problem remained: how to cool the immense amount of ash produced. Coal-fired plants traditionally use water, but this scarce resource was not an option. For over 25 years, Italy’s Magaldi has been solving this important problem. Their flagship invention, the Magaldi Ash Cooler (MAC), sits under a boiler and uses a conveyor belt capable of withstanding the 1000 degree Celsius temperatures found inside coal-fired power plants to take ash away. Using air instead of water to cool off coal ash, it keeps the ash dry for easy removal and resale, and returns some of the heat energy to the plant, increasing efficiency. The benefit to the local environment is substantial – and the savings are incredible. Some 130 MAC units and 600 Superbelts have been installed worldwide, resulting in 200 billion liters of water saved, and 20 million tons of ash removed – ash that would otherwise end up contaminating the environment. The MAC is used in 23 countries as well as in every coal-fired plant in the company’s native Italy. MAC use also keeps

(top) Youths play soccer early in the morning. India Gate in New Delhi shows in the background (left) An Indian vendor arranges oranges for sale at a wholesale fruit market in Calcutta, India (right) Magaldi’s Buccino factory: at work on the MAC (Magaldi Ash Cooler) system production line

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marketing an adapted version of the Superbelt to power plants for their ash waste, and the MAC, and along with it, Magaldi’s commitment to reducing water waste, was born. Today the group has four divisions: Magaldi Industrie, which produces the Superbelt and other belts to handle hot materials, Magaldi Ricerche e Brevetti, an R&D division, RSS, which specializes in automated systems, and Magaldi Power, which licenses the MAC worldwide, and has branches in Australia, Germany and India. In 2009, the Magaldi Group reached 52

an estimated 20 million tons of CO2 from being spewed into the environment. In Salerno in 1901, as Italy was starting its own industrialization, Emilio Magaldi riveted together strips of leather to use as a conveyor belt. Unlike other belts of the time, which were made of a single piece of rubber, Magaldi’s multi-piece belt ensured that an engine kept running even if one piece snapped. In 1929, Paolo Magaldi applied the same concept to the kinds of steel belts found in heavy industry, dubbing it a ‘supercinghia’ or ‘superbelt.’ Used at first to remove the hot and heavy runoff metal found in foundries, the Magaldi Superbelt achieved distinction for being able to remove coal, steel runoff and cement at very high temperatures – and for never failing. In the 80s, Magaldi began

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million euros in sales (80 percent of this revenue from outside Italy), representing a 15 percent growth rate over 2008. A commitment to innovation drives the business forward today. Paolo Magaldi’s son and present-day company president Mario Magaldi maintains that “It’s not enough to have an idea – to do a project right you’ve got to study it for a long time, and continue to invest in research.” Magaldi annually reinvests 5-6 percent of their total revenue in research and development, working with the universities of Salerno and Naples in Italy, and with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Industrial Liaison Program in the US. Magaldi also plays a role in Cotec, a private foundation that promotes technological competitiveness in Italy, Spain and Portugal (and whose contribution to this volume appears on page 144). So it only makes sense that Magaldi should make a bold step forward in renewable energy, which is precisely what they did in 2009, installing 9,000 solar panels on the 19,000 square-meter area on the roof of their headquarters in sunny Salerno. Producing 2,500 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, the panels reduce 1.5 million kg of CO2 emissions annually. Last year, Magaldi’s RSS division began to sell photovoltaic systems to warehouses and workshops in Europe. And what about keeping coal ash out of the rivers of the world’s sixth largest energy consumer? In India, the success of the MAC system in Durgapur has become a calling card for Magaldi, winning them contracts in Ratnagiri and Gummidipoondi. To keep up with business there, the group has opened an Indian

(this page) Details of Magaldi’s Superbelt, which although not part of the MAC system, is used for weighing parts as part of the testing process. The MAC conveyor belt (right) withstands very high temperatures, using air rather than water to cool off coal ash and so keep it dry for resale purposes

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branch, Magaldi Power India, based in Kolkata. “We started out trying to keep ash out of the water in places like Venice, Mallorca, Florida and Portugal,” Mario Magaldi remembers, “natural parks and tourist places, back when environmentalism was new. But every place is important. Everyone is interested in saving water.” When asked where the company could be next, Magaldi notes that although the family business has worked in the US before, “ash is still thrown out, into ponds and lakes. It could be a huge market.” And perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it were.

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3.3 MANUFACTURING AND OPERATING GIVING A SPIN TO TANNING ITALPROGETTI ROLLS A NEW DRUM Medellin is a daunting town. The second biggest city in Colombia is wedged between two mountain ranges of the Andes Cordillera and perched at an altitude of 1,500 meters. This thriving metropolis of more than 2 million inhabitants is also the country’s largest industrial centre.

*

Italprogetti’s facility at San Romano, Pisa province, which produces polypropylene barrels.

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Top Croc is a Medellin tanner specializing in cayman, crocodile and other reptile skins. Demand for luxury goods, including those using reptile skins, has enjoyed strong growth thanks to advent of an affluent upper and middle class in emerging economies. But tanning exotic skins is a difficult process requiring the use of corrosive chemicals. The fashion and design industries are also putting pressure on tanners to produce more and more elaborate leathers and to meet tighter production cycles as the wheel of the fashion world spins faster and faster. But the staid world of tanning is ill-equipped to meet those demands as it continues to use antiquated solutions. One of these is the wooden tumbling drum used to soak and dye leather. As noble and versatile a material wood may be, it is not best material to optimize production efficiency and quality and curb pollution. Wood does not permit accurate temperature and pH

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(top) Street mural of legendary tango icon Carlos Gardel in the Manrique neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia. At left, a polypropylene drum in construction. Parts (above) are developed using materials that are more durable than the traditional wooden components control of the float in which the hides and skins are soaked, thus limiting action on the treatment process. Wood is too fragile to handle corrosive chemicals such as sodium sulphide, used for to remove hairs from hides, and chloric acid, used for bleaching. Wooden drums are also bulky due to the material’s thickness. To push back the limits of tanning, some high-end producers shifted to stainless steel drums to better control the float and churn out more sophisticated leathers. But steel also has its drawbacks. It is costly and being an electric conductor needs to be insulated. But like wood, steel is not sufficiently resistant to corrosive chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, the new buzz word in the industry. To avoid sulphide residues in the sludge from the treatment of industrial waste waters resulting from the use of sodium sulphides, the industry is experimenting with hydrogen peroxide in

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unhairing hides. But this requires a drum resistant to the corrosion caused by the chemical. In 1998, Italprogetti Engineering invented the polypropylene drum. Incidentally, polypropylene is another highprofile Italian discovery. The polymer was created in 1954 by Giulio Natta, who subsequently obtained the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1963, jointly with Karl Ziegler, for their work on high polymers. Labelled as extravagant at the time, the use of polypropylene drums is catching on and Italprogetti has already sold about 1,000 machines using such technology. Colombia’s Top Croc, and many other tanners worldwide such as Ton Phat in Vietnam, now rank among its clients. Thanks to its thinner shell, a polypropylene drum can host 15 percent more hides and skins than a wooden drum of similar size.

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The design (right) of Italprogetti’s San Romano-made polypropylene barrels makes them easy to clean, corrosionresistant and environmentally friendly (below left, an interior view) It is estimated that a polypropylene drum uses 20-25 percent less water than a wooden one. It is also easier to clean and has a smooth surface reducing abrasion on the hides and skins thus avoiding damage to the grain. Resistant to chemicals and not porous to water, the degradation of polypropylene drums is very slow and guarantees stable performances over a very long life-span. The drum can last more than 50 years if used with an average float temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. Polypropylene is also entirely recyclable. Meanwhile, the performance of wooden drums, which require hard exotic timber, is affected by a general decline in the quality of timber as forestry resources are depleted. Lower quality wood is expected to reduce the life-span of wooden drums which formerly reached about 20-25 years. Italprogetti expects demand for polypropylene drums to be further boosted thanks to the growing recourse to hydrogen peroxide. Apart from eliminating sulphide residues, the oxidative unhairing process produces leather which is easier to dye and with a finer and clearer grain. Hydrogen peroxide is currently used by a limited number of tanneries but Italprogetti’s founder and chairman Mario Serrini expects widespread employment of the chemical in about 10 years’ time. The polypropylene’s resistance to corrosion also provides an opportunity to develop other industrial tanning techniques such as

Parts (below and facing page) are made using chrome-free materials

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Croce sull’Arno, one of the world’s most important leather centers with about 400 tanneries generating an overall turnover of about 2 billion euros. Italprogetti works in close collaboration with the nearby University of Pisa and local tanners to test and develop more efficient and environment-friendly manufacturing and watertreatment processes.

zirconium salts. Zirconium is a candidate to replace chrome, which contributes to aquifer pollution. Italprogetti highlighted that for environmental reasons, some industrialists, such as the Volkswagen group, now require chrome-free products. Zirconium-tanning produces a white leather, which realizes clear and bright colors when dyed, while chrome-tanned skins are blue. Zirconium-tanned leathers also tend to be fuller and firmer than that those produced by chrome tanning. Zirconium salts need very acid floats which are too corrosive for wood or steel but can be used with polypropylene drums. The company believes that by improving the quality of leather and limiting pollution, the tanning industry can stop the current relocation of production in emerging economies, where environmental issues are less pressing. Italprogetti is situated in the Tuscan industrial cluster of Santa

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CHAPTER 4

BUILDING GREEN INTRODUCTION 4.1 SOLAR PANELS

4.2 SMART MATERIALS

4.3 SUSTAINABLE BUILDING SOLUTIONS


CHAPTER 4 TST ENGINEERING Sustainable Building Solutions

A market leader in Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE), TST Engineering’s high-tech equipment and procedures allow all existing subsurface infrastructures to be located and depicted in a non-destructive manner. Trenchless technologies, as the name implies, stand for subsurface construction works where fewer trenches or no continuous trenches need to be dug. By avoiding unnecessary digging, the environmental impact of projects is reduced significantly while clients save time and money and avoid the possibility of expensive damages, service disruptions, redesigns, claims and injuries. Trenchless technologies are increasingly being accepted worldwide as more efficient, less disruptive, and more environmentally friendly and cost effective than traditional methods. After winning an international tender in 2004, TST Engineering was employed by Ireland’s Railway Procurement Agency to provide a reliable 3D representation and description of all utilities that could potentially interfere with the C1, a new light rail transport route to be constructed in a densely populated area of Dublin City. Since 2004, TST Engineering has won additional tenders and mapped out several other proposed light rail and metro routes for the Irish agency.

UMPI ELETTRONICA Sustainable Building Solutions

Rioluz, the energy management and lighting company of Rio de Janeiro, chose UMPI Elettronica’s Minos System in July 2010 for remote control lighting of the city’s world-famous “Christ the Redeemer” monument and the park in which the statue is situated. The system allows Rioluz to reduce energy consumption for lighting and to also save energy and other resources by intervening more efficiently when maintenance is needed. International expansion is part of the strategy of UMPI Elettronica. The company, which is now present in 15 countries, recently secured a contract to remotely manage the lighting for the Nice-Saint Isidre highway in France.

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he construction process and inefficient building use can have a major, negative environmental impact so any green revolution without the involvement of the construction industry would be doomed to failure from the start. Luckily, there are a number of encouraging signs that green building is no longer just a buzz word but instead has become the modus operandi for a growing number of builders. New constructions are increasingly energy efficient – meaning lower C0₂ emissions and electricity bills – and built with other sustainable criteria in mind, such as that of limiting waste both during the construction process and the lifetime of a building. Italian firms are taking their green credentials abroad, reflecting the general internationalization of the sector. According to a 2010 survey looking at 40 major construction firms carried out by the Italian Construction Contractors’ Association (ANCE), the combined international turnover of these surveyed companies exceeded 7.2 billion euros in 2009, almost

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BUILDING GREEN triple the combined 2.5 billion euros seen in 2003. Today, these 40 companies now trace the majority, or 54%, of their global revenues to overseas markets. With a combined portfolio worth 44 billion euros and presence in 86 countries, Italian companies operating abroad are increasingly constructing -- whether it be a residence, a commercial building, a largescale infrastructure project or even an amusement park – while constantly keeping an eye on sustainability. As pointed out by Federprogetti, the Italian Federation of Industrial Plant Engineering, the international success of these companies in both the civil/infrastructural engineering and industrial plant sectors is due not only to their performance in terms of innovation and financial savvy but also to their ability to effectively market their competitive advantages. The list of Italian firms active on the international level and intent on sustainability includes names such as Italian industrial plant and engineering,

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procurement and construction (EPC) contractors Saipem, Maire Tecnimont and Italian construction contractors Astaldi, Bonatti, CMC Ravenna, Salini and Todini as well as steel infrastructure group Cimolai, tunnel excavation group SELI, civil engineering firm FIP Industriale, and Busi Impianti, whose projects have included acting as the mechanical, electric systems and plumbing contract for the east tower of the Class A Mirax Federation Tower in Moscow, Europe’s tallest skyscraper. UMPI Elettronica, TST, Tesmec and Brianza Plastica, whose activities are also highlighted in this chapter, are among those firms that have carried Italy’s sustainability banner abroad, with a series of important international projects. Italian firms have been involved in the development of more efficient processes that reduce the environmental impact, pollution and raw material waste sometimes associated with traditional building methods. They are also behind the development of new, smarter materials,

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which help reduce pollution and energy consumption and are likely to be recyclable. And some Italian companies have also conceived buildings as miniature renewable energy plants, generating power from

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integrated photovoltaic modules or smallscale urban wind turbines. In this chapter, we will take a closer look at some of the Italian companies leading the green building revolution both in their

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home markets and abroad. Among these are the photovoltaic module producer Pramac, whose Luce Micromorph modules can be easily integrated into a building’s architecture for sustainable design solutions and are being used on a number of Swiss projects. And then there are the custommade and recyclable glass blocks produced by Gruppo Seves that helped to make the Maison Hermès flagship store in Tokyo a striking specimen of architecture and allowed it to conserve energy as well. Italcementi’s ‘transparent’ cement, used to construct the Italian pavilion at the 2010 International Exposition held in Shanghai, is also a testament to Italian design but its light-transmitting qualities allow for energy savings. Foundation infrastructure group Trevi, which has helped stabilize the Leaning Tower of Pisa and other ages-old monuments, has used innovation to provide solutions for environmental protection such as building walls beneath garbage dumps to prevent contaminants from seeping into the groundwater. And amusement park Zamperla’s winning proposal to restore the world-renowned Luna Park at Coney Island allowed the city of New York to retain the Coney Island beach for locals and avoid the serious environmental impact that a planned hotel, retail and condominium development would have had on the area.

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

TESMEC

Sustainable Building Solutions When the trenches needed to be dug for South African infrastructure company Transnet Limited’s 540-kilometer long New Multi Product Pipeline (NMPP) in 2009, the four trenching machines and know-how provided by Italy’s Tesmec helped to minimize any environmental impact. Tesmec, which oversaw the digging process for the pipeline running between Jameson Park and Durban in South Africa, has developed machinery that allows for the removal of the precise amount of dirt necessary and the reutilization of vast majority of that dirt to cover up the pipeline. This differs dramatically from the machinery traditionally used in the digging process, which excavates vast quantities of earth that must then be moved offsite.

BRIANZA PLASTICA Smart Materials

Brianza Plastica’s Isotec product, a thermal under-tile insulating system for pitched roofs, was used during the recent restructuring of the century-old Centro Cultural Justiça Federal building in Rio de Janeiro, the former supreme court that now serves as a cultural center. Among the advantages of Isotec, made up of rigid central polyurethane foam, are the possibilities for energy savings. In Rio de Janeiro, it was chosen also for its complete waterproofing and humidity elimination characteristics, which were extremely important for preserving the historic building. Closer to home, Brianza Plastica’s Isotec insulation has also been used on the roofs of a number of historic and cultural landmarks, including Milan’s famed opera house, Teatro alla Scala.

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4.1 SOLAR PANELS PRAMAC: FAÇADES FOR THE FUTURE Green building, or construction that is carried out with respect for rigorous environmental and energy efficiency criteria, is at the top of the agenda for a growing number of architects, designers, companies and governments. One key feature of a sustainable building is its façade, which

At Pramac’s Casole d'Elsa site, fabrication of parts (at right) that are discrete stages in the manufacture of generators 122


SUSTAINABILITY MEETS DESIGN may not only be composed of ecologically-friendly materials but can also become an important source of clean energy for the building. Photovoltaic façades, containing photovoltaic modules that convert energy from the sun into electricity, have become increasingly popular for those looking to reduce their carbon footprint and to save money on electricity bills.

* Light creations are displayed in front of the Sforzesco Castle as part of the December 2010’s LED (Light Exhibition Design) International Festival of Lights, in Milan, Italy 123


Some governments have also sought to encourage architecturally-integrated photovoltaic installations, rewarding them with higher incentive prices than stand-alone structures. Yet architects and planners continue to face a number of challenges in adopting them. To begin with, building façades are often less exposed to the sun. Architects may also face design difficulties integrating some conventional crystalline photovoltaic panels. And some of the possible photovoltaic façade solutions available are simply not aesthetically pleasing. The Pramac group, with headquarters in the Tuscan town of Casole d’Elsa near Siena, has addressed both the efficiency and design challenges associated with building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) through the development of its Pramac Luce Micromorph modules. Faceactive – a Swiss sustainable façade partnership between energy group Alpiq, high-technology façade specialist Allouis, and construction group Batineg – turned to Pramac in 2010 with an order for up to 930 kW of the modules, 120 kW of which had already been delivered by November 2010. Faceactive was looking for a product that could allow a building to double as an efficient miniature power station - and the Luce Micromorph façades will produce 80-85 kWh of electricity per square meter each year - but could also be perfectly integrated into the architecture of the façade. Design and sustainability are both featuring in a number of Faceactive projects underway in Switzerland using Pramac Luce

(left) Pramac’s Swiss plant (Bottom) At Casole d' Elsa, working on the generator assembly line

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(left) A technician assembles the first of a two-sided Pramac wind blade that when finished, will appear as the Twin-blade, seen below (below) A Pramac engineer calibrates the Twin-blade’s instrumentation Pramac’s Luce Micromorph modules are also environmentally friendly. They are produced without cadmium telluride and the raw materials employed are both plentiful and non-toxic. Without the unsightly frames that characterize some modules and with a great emphasis on aesthetics, Pramac Luce Micromorph modules can be more easily integrated into architecture. Architects and

Micromorph modules. Among these is the so-called Bacri project, which involves the renovation and expansion of the office building of local electricity company Services Intercommunaux de l’Electricité (SIE) in Crissier, Switzerland. Construction work on the project, which will meet the requirements of the Swiss Minergie sustainable building standard, began in September 2010. Pramac Luce Micromorph modules are developed, produced and marketed through its wholly-owned Pramac Swiss subsidiary. The modules are manufactured using an innovative thin film technology with dual silicon layers. The process combines a top layer of amorphous silicon over a micro-crystalline level, allowing the modules to absorb a wider spectrum of radiation than traditional modules and thus to produce more power. If you combine their greater efficiency with the fact that Luce Micromorph process allows Pramac to bring down product costs, it is clear that the return on investment (ROI) is also faster than that for traditional modules.

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RevolutionAir, Pramac’s new line of micro wind turbines, is the latest generation (this page) of power-generating equipment

designers have already found creative ways to use the modules. During Milan’s 2009 furniture fair, Pramac joined forces with Italian architect Luca Trazzi for the T-Energy installation. The project consisted of a 15-meter metal tower produced by Italian stainless steel engineering company Olmi, with a base made up of modular light panels provided by Italian lighting company Martini. The tower can be lit up in the evening by energy absorbed during the day by Pramac’s solar panels. The tower – on display in front of Milan’s Sforzesco Castle for the international Light Exhibition Design festival held in December 2010 and January 2011 – was intended to demonstrate the possibilities of integrating photovoltaic technology with metal and LED lighting technology. The Pramac group posted revenues of 186 million euros in 2009, has more than 800 employees and subsidiaries in 20 countries. It has six productive facilities in six countries, including one in Casole d’Elsa, the state-of-the-art Pramac Swiss factory at which its Pramac Micromorph Luce modules are produced, and others in Spain, France, China and the U.S. Alongside photovoltaic components, the group also develops and

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manufactures materials handling equipment and a wide range of power generation equipment. Its range of power generation equipment was expanded in January 2010 with the presentation of new line of micro wind turbines called “RevolutionAir”. The new turbines were the result of a joint effort between star French designer Philippe Starck and Pramac Lab, the group’s R&D unit. The vertical axis turbines come in two models, a 400 W quadrangular version and a 1 kW helicoidal machine, and unlike many wind turbines are also suitable for use in urban locations. And while noise is a complaint for some wind turbines, these ones are quiet. Said Starck: "I have always wanted to design an invisible turbine with the goal of making something everyone would want.”

Pramac’s design for a generator on the drawing board (above) and an interior view of Pramac’s Swiss plant (right) TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

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4.2 SMART MATERIALS SCALING THE HEIGHTS SEVES' STUNNING SOLUTIONS When world-renowned architect Renzo Piano needed to transform into reality his grand vision to put an original glass façade on Maison Hermès, the Tokyo flagship store of the venerable French fashion house, he did what many of his contemporaries have done, he turned to Seves.

* At Seves’ factory in Florence, towering glass bricks function as an interior wall 129


Piano is just one of many famous international architects who have used Florence-based Seves to create innovative buildings that are both visually stunning and environmentally friendly. Piano wanted the façade of his building to be at the same time dazzling and symbolic. For the dazzling he decided on thousands of glass blocks stacked on top of each other; for the symbolic he planned to have the glass blocks cut to a very specific size – 90 centimeters by 90 centimeters, the exact size of Hermès’ first headscarf. The glass also had to do a particularly good job at reflecting light so Piano could create the effect of a lantern that would pay homage to Japan, home to the architect’s newest creation. Manufacturer after manufacturer told Piano it was not be possible to make a 90x90-centimeter glass block. Seves was among the makers of glass blocks that Piano had queried and like its rivals, the company informed the architect that 90x90 was too big to be feasible. Glass blocks usually measure 19x19 centimeters when used in construction and on rare occasions can top out at 30x30 centimeters. Seves, which has a 40 percent share of the worldwide market for glass blocks and had revenue of 368 million euros in 2009, came back to Piano with a personalized proposal made possible by the company’s tailor-made offering that lets clients dictate the specifics of their glass blocks. The suggestion: four blocks each measuring 42.8x42.8 centimeters that including the canals between blocks equaled the 90x90 Piano sought. Even at half the size of what Piano had originally sought, the 42.8-centemeter blocks were until then unheard of.

The glass brick production line (left). A Seves’ worker controls the quality of a just-blown brick (above) THE ITALIAN EDGE


At Seves’ glass brick production line in Florence. Here the bricks are fired through a burner. (Bottom) Maison Hermès, Tokyo, by Renzo Piano is the corporate headquarters and retail store for Hermès Japan

The final result, all 15 impressive floors of it, has been on display since 2001 in the heart of Tokyo’s famous Ginza district. For the 45-meter high Maison Hermès Piano used 13,000 of Seves’ custom-made glass blocks. With each passing year Seves’ glass blocks become more technologically advanced and they can now reduce by up to 50 percent the amount of heat that is transmitted compared with a traditional glass block. This means that the all-glass façades made with Seves blocks can now help conserve energy and protect the environment. And as an added environmental benefit, the entirely recyclable glass blocks are made from all natural raw materials using a low-impact production process. More modest projects around the world (Europe and the Americas account for a third of sales each and the last third is split between Asia and Africa) which are looking for a similar effect to

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that created by Piano, can use glass blocks exactly one quarter the size of those that built the Maison Hermès, thus replicating the curved, external face and the smooth, internal surface. The design of the block also makes it possible to build façades that hide the supporting metallic structure. Though Seves has more than 4,000 employees spread across 22 production facilities in Europe (9), the Americas (7) and Asia (6), the company remains intimately linked to its hometown where the tradition of skilled glasswork dates back many centuries (Florence’s cathedral has some of the finest stained glass in Italy by the likes of Donatello, Paolo Uccello and other 15th Century artists). In 2004, Seves worked on the project to restore the city’s Teatro Puccini creating an impressive glass tower that rises majestically above the theater. Rafael Moneo, the only Spaniard to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, also came to Seves when he needed a particular glass block to create his desired effect for the University of Deusto library in Bilbao. The library’s customized blocks evoke the Doric columns of ancient Greece that Moneo hoped would achieve the seemingly impossible feat of carving out an original

architectural identity in a city dominated by Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim museum. The architectural firm of Moneo’s daughter also called on Seves when it needed a particular glass block, in this case in the shape of a trapezoid, for the thermal baths it built more than 1,500 meters up in the Spanish Pyrenees. Glass blocks account for about 15 percent of Seves’ revenue with most of the rest coming from the company’s equally innovative electricity insulation business, which builds insulation in ceramic and glass for the generation, transportation and distribution of electricity..

(this page) Seves’ glass bricks on display in the company’s Florentine showroom Facing page: Precision control and manufacturing

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LIGHTING AND SHADOWS ITALCEMENTI INTRODUCES I.LIGHT Italy was much more than an ordinary participant country at the 2010 International Exposition held in Shanghai from May to October 2010. As millions of visitors headed to Shanghai, the city of Milan – Italy’s financial capital and a sister city of Shanghai – was already immersed in preparations to host the next World’s Fair in 2015.

* Night view of the Italy Pavilion at 2010’s World Expo site in Shanghai, China 134



Visitors look at a full-lenght gown inside the Italy Pavilion of 2010’s World Expo Park, Shanghai, China (below)

Italcementi’s cement works at Dalusco D'Adda. A cement mixer in operation (right) and lab-controlled chemical analysis in the research center (above and bottom right)

With the countdown to the Milan Expo underway, the Italian pavilion in Shanghai was an important calling card for the country. The pavilion design presented by architect Giampaolo Imbrighi was chosen among 65 candidates from a European Union-wide competition. Called The City of Man, the pavilion was composed of 20 functional modules representing the 20 regions of Italy. The design was inspired by a traditional Shanghai game known in Italy as Shanghai (or as pick-up sticks in the U.S.), in which children drop a bundle of sticks and try to dislodge them one at a time without moving the other sticks. Imbrighi was looking for a cost-effective and innovative solution to make the external walls of the pavilion transparent and was looking to find it quickly. Italcementi rose to the challenge, coming up with the new i.light ‘transparent cement’ at its research facilities in Bergamo, where company headquarters are also located. Research efforts first began in June 2008 and by March 2010, the pavilion and its 3,774 transparent cement panels had all been assembled. Thanks to the capacity of i.light to filter light, the new cement makes it possible to save on electricity for lighting, thus contributing to energy savings. The new material is also robust and guaranteed to last as long as those made from traditional cement materials. Italcementi has made cement “transparent” by developing a patented technology in which a new dry readymixed product is bonded with a light-transmitting plastic resin matrix. To meet the architectural requirements of the project,

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Italcementi produced both panels with about 20 percent of the surface transparent and others with a transparency level of about 10 percent. Italcementi researchers dedicated more than 3,000 hours of work to the project. With annual revenues of 5 billion euros, the Italcementi Group has 23,000 employees in 22 countries. Although the company operates in the building sector, a field in which research is often thought to be of marginal importance, innovation has always been a trademark of the group. Over a decade, Italcementi’s 170 chemists, physicists, geologists and engineers carrying out research in Bergamo and Paris laboratories have deposited more than 60 patents. Research efforts have concentrated on making cement a more sustainable building material.

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Italcementi’s new "Kilometro Rosso" research laboratory, under construction (above)

At the end of 2011, Italcementi’s new 11,000-square meter group research center under construction in Bergamo’s Kilometro Rosso science and technology park will become operational. Designed by American architect Richard Meier, the i.lab has already won a number of awards for its energy efficiency and sustainability features. The building was designed and is being built in compliance with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards. The i.lab roof is fitted with photovoltaic panels able to generate more than 54,650 kWh a year of electricity and equipped with under-vacuum tube solar panels providing heating and air conditioning. The building will be coated with another sustainable Italcementi material, its TX active ‘smog eating’ cement. Meier

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had already used that product, which was among those showcased during the ‘Italy of Innovators’ exhibit held at the Italian pavilion in Shanghai, on the Jubilee Church in Rome. At the closing ceremony for the Shanghai International Exhibition on October 31, 2010, Chinese organizers lowered the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) flag and handed it over to Milan mayor Letizia Moratti and Giuseppe Sala, CEO of Milan Expo 2015. Some 7.3 million visitors had come to the Italian pavilion, making it one of the five most-visited pavilions among the 129 present in Shanghai. Imbrighi’s pavilion and Italcementi’s distinctive cement also caught the eye of Chinese municipalities and institutions, which advanced 23 separate requests to acquire the building.

(left) At Italcementi’s Calusco D’Adda cement works, monitoring an exhaust pipeline A worker’s protective suit (above)

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4.3 SUSTAINABLE BUILDING SOLUTIONS A TALE OF TWO TOWERS TREVI LAYS FOUNDATIONS Almost a millennium ago, an Italian engineer’s miscalculation gave Italy one of its most recognizable icons: the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Eight hundred years later, another group of Italian engineers stepped in and corrected the mistake for good.

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Whereas previous efforts to save Italy’s most famous landmark had focused on simply propping the bell tower up, a truly definitive solution involved going under the tower and stabilizing the earth itself. The company up for the task was Italy’s Trevi, who for over a half-century have been quite literally operating underground, building the foundations of infrastructure all over the world. Recently, the company has worked on projects that have been at the center of the past decade’s most prominent events – conserving the Bamiyan Buddhas site in Afghanistan, helping New Orleans recover after Katrina, and rebuilding at Ground Zero in New York. Founded by civil engineer Davide Trevisiani in Cesena in 1957, Trevi started off by putting up underground support pilings. The company was innovating and expanding from the beginning, patenting a device for large-scale piledriving in their first decade. Trevi was involved in the international field early on as well, scoring a contract to develop the Apapa Road Flyovers in Lagos, Nigeria in 1967. By 1969, Davide and his brother GianLuigi started a second division, Soilmec, to focus solely on manufacturing soil engineering equipment. The Trevi Group has continued to expand and now includes Petreven, an oil drilling contractor; Drillmec, an oil and gas drilling rig manufacturer; and, as of 2007, off-shore wind farm and

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Employees at work to secure the leaning tower from below (center and right) (below) Tourists “measure” the tower’s tilt - an ongoing tradition that may be over, thanks to Trevi’s technological expertise


leaning and to resolve the problem for, we hope, the next three hundred years.” Trevi’s next high-profile project took them into an even deeper past – the two buddhas of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. Although the statues themselves were destroyed in March 2001, there are Buddhist monks’ cells in the caves, outlines of the statues, and other artifacts within the cliff faces. UNESCO and

geothermal power division, Trevi Energy. In 2009, Trevi posted 1,035.8 million euros in revenue and 104.6 million euros in pre-tax profits. In 1990, Italy’s most famous landmark was leaning perilously – millions of tourist visitors and a sinking, sandy foundation had conspired to make the Leaning Tower of Pisa a dizzying 13 feet off plumb, with the tilt growing at as much as 0.08 inches a year. Local authorities closed the iconic landmark and a consortium was called to discuss the best solutions. With a generation of experience and innovation in restructuring foundations and working underground, Trevi was the ideal candidate for the job. Performing under the watch of the eyes of the world, Trevi started off in 1994 by using anchoring blocks and almost two million pounds of lead counter-weights to stop the tilting of the tower. Trevi also reinforced the earth around the tower using sophisticated Archimedes screws – a screw within a tube – that allowed them to extract earth from under the tower without disturbing its balance. The tower reopened to the public in 2000, but the work continued till 2004. As Stefano Trevisani, Trevi’s managing director, puts it, “after 10 years of work we managed to stop the

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the government of Japan, who is leading the effort to rebuild, contracted Trevi. In 2003, Trevi undertook the task of stabilizing the thoroughly damaged rock walls for future archeologists and restoration workers with the same care that it had tended to its own cultural treasure back in Italy, its workers scaling the sheer cliff walls in order to put up anchoring bars, hang steel cables, and inject cement. Trevi has the delicate hand that it takes to work on ages-old structures, but it also has the large-scale know-how to work on projects that reshape the environment in the new world. Since its acquisition in the late 1990s of the Boston-based Icos, Trevi has operated in the United States as Treviicos. Treviicos started off in 1997 by working on the “Big Dig” in Boston and then brought its dambuilding expertise, acquired in Argentina, Italy, and The world's tallest statue of Buddha, measuring 53 meters (175 feet), is shown in Bamiyan, 125 kilometers west of Kabul in Afghanistan in 1973. Supreme Commander of the Taliban Mullah Mohammad Omar ordered the destruction of all pre-Islamic statues in Afghanistan, including the centuries-old Buddha in Bamiyan. Hamid Karzai said his government will rebuild giant statues of Buddha that were destroyed by the Taliban. A girl carries bottles of water next to the niche of the Buddha that was blown up by the Taliban in 2001, at Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, taken on August 25, 2005. Dating from the 3rd and 4th century, these were among the largest Buddha statues in the world. The International Council on Monuments and Sites, (ICOMOS) is working to protect their remains and clean the caves and chambers from debris and antipersonnel mines. The area was declared a World Heritage Site in 2003

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Africa, to the US. In 2003, Treviicos built the biggest impermeable wall in history for Alabama’s Walter F. George Dam on the Chattaoochee River. In 2009, Treviicos worked on three dams in Kansas, Kentucky and Florida with the Army Corps of Engineers, who base their cooperation with Trevi on the progress, safety and punctuality that they consistently provide. “We have a great capacity to come up with new solutions, and we are quite attentive – Americans, and all our clients, have a great need for safe worksites, and we have a perfect record,” says Trevisani. In Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Treviicos won a 100 million dollar contract to rebuild and raise a five-mile earthen levee to keep New Orleans safe from flooding for the next 100 years. Innovations that Trevi has developed in decades of


foundational work give them an advantage in protecting the environment as well. At two sites in Puglia, in southern Italy, Trevi is building walls underneath garbage dumps to prevent contaminant from seeping into the groundwater. Without this innovation, the waste would have had to been moved – creating more risk for the environment. With over 40 branches around the world, it is also a company with a truly global outlook, and nowhere is this spirit of

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international cooperation expressed than in the work that Trevi completed in 2007 at Ground Zero, laying the slurry walls for the memorial park now underway. “The work we do is literally ‘underground,’” Trevisani says. “Perhaps because it’s technical, no one knows who does this work, but everyone knew the skyscrapers.” No matter whether the tower is from the 12th century or the 20th, Trevi’s engineers know what kind of ground it’s resting on.

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RECLAIMING ZAMPERLA'S RIDES PROTECT A BEACH Fears that New York's famous Coney Island – already just a shadow of what it was in its heyday of the first half of the 20th century – would cease forever to be the city's own

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Ocean destination, materialized when developer Joseph Sitt's Thor Equities closed down the Astroland Amusement Park at Coney Island on September 7, 2008.

THE ITALIAN EDGE


Coney Island's new Luna Park opens for the summer (left) (right) A day at Coney Island is a family affair

* CONEY ISLAND Thor's objective: to bury the sand with a massive 1.5 billion dollar sprawl of hotel, retail and condominium development in the area. The City was alarmed. Coney Island risked losing forever its characteristic of being the beach for New Yorkers. And the development could have had environmental repercussions that would further damage the local character of the neighborhood. The city's reaction was swift. Mayor Bloomberg approved a competition for a development proposal that would preserve tradition and protect the beach, while simultaneously bolstering economic investment. To protect Coney Island from becoming a Las Vegas-like destination, New York City's Economic Development Corporation issued a Request for Proposals on October 20th, with a deadline of November 20th – an extremely quick turnaround time for the industry. The City purchased 6.9 acres of Thor Equities' Astroland parcel for 95.6 million dollars in early November 2009. The City's mission was to restore the area's world-renowned

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Luna Park, which operated from 1903 to 1944, and to leave the nearby beach – well – as a beach. The EDC wanted speed. For that reason, after reviewing the competing proposals from four companies, it awarded the contract to Central Amusement International (CAI), a subsidiary of Zamperla, an Italian, world-class amusement ride manufacturer and park operator based in Vicenza. CAI and Zamperla committed to give EDC a fully operational park in 100 days. The development bid was awarded to CAI on January 15th, 2010. One month later the company signed a lease agreement with the City, and on March 1st it took over the former Astroland site. Over the next 100 days the company developed the infrastructure of one-half of the site and imported 19 rides from Zamperla. The first half of the site opened to the public on May 29th, 2010. The impact of the new park on Coney Island's local economy was immediately apparent. Local business owners told the EDC that their revenue and numbers of visitors in June and July of 2010 were some of the best they had seen in the previous 40 years. CAI is leasing the Luna Park site from the city for ten years at 100,000 dollars per year, and paying a portion of its revenue based on gross receipts from the park to the city. New York City invested 6.6 million dollars in site preparation and basic infrastructure to the area, while CAI/Zamperla is expected to invest nearly 30 million dollars to build and operate the park. The parks are projected to create 330 new full-time and part-time jobs by 2011, with the city and Zamperla putting an emphasis on local hiring. Zamperla, founded in 1963, is based in Vicenza, Italy, the country's third-largest industrial center as measured by the value of its exports, and a center of innovation in electronics and electrical engineering. Zamperla used many manufacturers local to Vicenza to rebuild Coney Island's Luna Park, including Auxel, an amusement ride manufacturer with advanced electronic and electrical engineering expertise; Calp, which specializes in mechanical pre-assembly; Power Systems, an hydraulics company; and amusement ride manufacturer Soriani. Not only did Zamperla use equipment exclusively from Italy to set up the 22-ride park in 100 days, but it also hired 25 workers from the Vicenza area – employees of Zamperla and its suppliers with expertise in electrical, mechanical, and electronic engineering. Valerio Ferrari, president of Zamperla, attributes Luna Park's quick turnaround to the company's strong team of local Vicenzan and overseas experts in the field. Vicenza is located in the Veneto region of Italy, which is home to many of the world's leaders in amusement ride technology. Combined, the small- and medium-sized companies in the region's industrial hubs – which also include Verona, Rovigo, Ferrara and Bergantino – account for more than half of the world's amusement ride market share. For example, approximately 98

(right) Thrill-seekers reach for the sky at Coney Island 149


percent of Zamperla's annual turnover is derived from international exports. The company as a group has 450 employees, and an annual revenue of 70 million euros, or 91.4 million dollars. Zamperla's U.S. arm was founded in 1978. The company has manufactured rides for many parks in the U.S., including Disney World, Six Flags, and the late Michael Jackson's private Neverland Ranch. Zamperla also operates the Victorian Gardens in Central Park, which opened in 2003 as a partnership with Donald Trump Corp. Zamperla rides can be found at amusement parks around the world, including Drayton Manor Theme Park and Alton Towers, both in Staffordshire, England; Wicksteed Park in Northamptonshire, England; The Flambards Experience in Cornwall, England; S채rk채nniemi in Tampere, Finland; Wasalandia in Vaasa, Finland; Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario; Liseberg in Gothenburg, Sweden;

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Fantasilandia in Santiago, Chile; and the China Dinosaur and Park in Changzhou, China. Zamperla currently sells to more than 90 countries, and exports about 95 percent of its products. It has sales or representative offices in Belarus, Russia, China, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. CAI/Zamperla developed the remaining 3.5 acres just before the end of 2010, dubbing a section of it the "Scream Zone", with roller coasters and other so-called "thrill" rides that are mostly targeted at teenagers. A centerpiece of the new Luna Park is a ride called Air Race, which accommodates children as small four feet high, rotating them in airplane-shaped seating to an acceleration of up to three Gs. It is reminiscent of the "Trip to the Moon" ride which was the eponymous centerpiece of the original Luna Park – "Luna" was the name of the mock spacecraft which hurled riders through the air when the park opened in 1903, a sensation which, along with its name, became forever synonymous with the joy of amusement parks around the five continents.

Sea creatures (left) wash ashore at Coney Island’s annual Mermaid Parade. Feet on the ground: Coney Island’s famous boardwalk (above left)

Fuel for the timid type, at Coney Island (left) Teenagers in flight (below


AFTERWORD COTEC FOUNDATION FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

W

hichever definition is used, innovation is a complex process driven by knowledge, creativity and an ability to shape the future. All these features characterize the Italian culture and epitomize its full potential when entrepreneurs, researchers and citizens bring together mutual expertise to design and to implement new products or services and to turn challenges into success stories. Emerging technological trajectories, global trends and the recent economic crisis imply a paradigm shift both in the innovation path and in the role of technological change in our society. On one hand, innovation is still grounded in scientific research, requires medium-to-long term investments, a clear agenda, the effective availability of enabling factors and efficient models of transferring knowledge into applications for the market. On the other hand, this long-established innovation pattern is now somewhat changing. Even if firms are still the basic actors for implementing innovative technologies (primarily products and

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services), the drivers of innovation are not only customers’ needs, but also, and with an increasing role, societal needs. What has been so far defined as demandpull innovation, mainly implying an active role of customers/ consumers in steering technological trends, is only a part of a much wider framework that we could now call society-driven innovation. Besides market incentives, governments play, at all levels, an important role in fostering and steering the innovation potential of our economic system. First of all, they set or should set policies that have a medium- and long-term impact on growth. Moreover – and this may be the most relevant issue – public administrations can foster innovation by the means of public procurement of hi-tech solutions in some fields where they are responsible for providing services to citizens. Considering the budget constraints that currently affect the public sector, this requires not only some enlightened and futureoriented policy-making, but also new models

THE ITALIAN EDGE


of cooperation between private and public players especially with respect to the financial viability of innovation projects. The Italian industrial structure is very peculiar and encompasses a high share of SMEs – some of which, in spite of their size, are global players – and a small number of hi-tech large firms. If the latter already successfully manage innovation, improved access to advanced knowledge is crucial for the former and has to be deeply improved. Indeed, although some relevant gaps are still to be filled, Italy is an important actor in the innovation arena. Our scientific research system is one of the more productive in Europe. Our contribution to environment and energy sustainable technologies is growing in both qualitative and quantitative terms and Italian researchers and firms hold about 5 percent of the new patents on waste management and 2.5 percent on renewable energy sources, numbers that are likely to grow along with the deeper specialization of our innovation portfolio.* The success stories reported in this book

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are some extraordinary examples of the Italian spirit, which historically deals with turning critical issues into brilliant solutions by mixing tradition, technology and a new way of facing the future. * Figures cited, within a broad analysis of the most interesting innovation indicators, in the Cotec Foundation's Annual Report on Innovation 2010.

The COTEC Foundation is a non-profit think tank whose institutional aim is to foster the generation and dissemination of technological innovation in Italy by providing both public and private stakeholders with research findings and policy recommendations. Together with its partner organizations in Spain and Portugal, COTEC – whose Honorary Chairman is the President of the Italian Republic – has established the Network COTEC Europa.

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LIST OF COMPANIES ACTA ENERGY ALENIA ALTA AMUT ANGELANTONI ARCHIMEDE SOLAR ENERGY ASTALDI AUXEL BONATTI BRIANZA PLASTICA BUSI IMPIANTI CALP CIMOLAI CLIVET CMC RAVENNA COMER DAVI DEMA DENVER DRILLMEC DUCATI ENERGIA ECOWARE ELETTRONICA SANTERNO ENEL ENERGY RESOURCES ENI FAAM FIP INDUSTRIALE FISIA ITALIMPIANTI FLAINOX FLUIDOTECNICA SANSEVERINO FOMAS FRACCAROLI FRI-EL GALDABINI GHINES GIULIANI TECNOLOGIE GLOBECO GOGLIO GRUPPO SEVES IMPREGILO INTERMEK ITALCEMENTI ITALPROGETTI

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ACTAENERGY.IT LEITWIND ALENIA-AERONAUTICA.IT LOCCIONI ALTA.IT MAGALDI AMUT.IT MAGNETI MARELLI ANGELANTONI.IT MARTINI WWW.ARCHIMEDESOLARENERGY.COM MAUS ASTALDI.COM MECCANICA NOVA AUXELRIDES.COM MICROVETT BONATTI.IT MONCADA ENERGY BRIANZAPLASTICA.IT MONTELLO BUSIGROUP.IT MOSSI & GHISOLFI CALPRIDES.COM OLMI CIMOLAI.COM OMS IMPIANTI CLIVET.COM OPTOI GROUP CMC.COOP PIRELLI COMERINDUSTRIES.COM PRAMAC DAVI.COM REM TECHNOLOGY DEMASRL.IT RESINEX DENVER.SM ROBUR DRILLMEC.COM ROPATEC DUCATIENERGIA.IT SAIPEM ECOWARE.EU SALINI ELETTRONICASANTERNO.IT SALVAGNINI ENEL.IT SAVIOLA ENERGYRESOURCES.IT SEDA ENI.COM SELI FAAM.COM SIAC FIP-GROUP.IT SOILMEC FISIAIT.COM SOLSONICA FLAINOX-IT.COM SOREMA FLUIDOTECNICASANSEVERINO.COM SORIANI FOMAS.IT SYAC FRACCAROLIBALZAN.IT TECNIMONT FRI-EL.IT TECNOMATIC GALDABINI.IT TERMORESINE GHINES.IT TESMEC GIULIANI.IT TODINI GLOBECO.IT TOZZI NORD GOGLIO.IT TREVI SEVES.COM TST IMPREGILO.IT TURBODEN INTERMEK.COM UMPI ELETTRONICA ITALCEMENTI.IT WRS ITALPROGETTI.IT ZAMPERLA

LEITWIND.COM LOCCIONI.COM MAGALDI.COM MAGNETIMARELLI.COM MARTINILIGHT.COM MAUS.IT MECCANICANOVA.COM MICRO-VETT.IT MONCADAENERGY.COM MONTELLO-SPA.IT GRUPPOMG.COM OLMI.IT OMSIMPIANTI.IT OPTOI.COM PIRELLI.COM PRAMAC.COM REMTECHNOLOGY.NET RESINEXTRAD.COM ROBUR.IT ROPATEC.COM SAIPEM.COM SALINI.IT SALVAGNINI.IT GRUPPOSAVIOLA.COM FINSEDA.COM SELITUNNEL.COM SIACENERGY.COM SOILMEC.IT SOLSONICA.COM SOREMA.IT SORIANISRL.IT SYAC.COM MAIRETECNIMONT.IT TECNOMATIC.IT TERMORESINE.IT TESMEC.COM TODINI.IT TOZZINORD.IT TREVISPA.COM TSTENGINEERING.COM TURBODEN.EU UMPI.IT WRSITALIA.COM ZAMPERLA.COM

THE ITALIAN EDGE


LIST OF ASSOCIATIONS ACIMAC ACIMAC.IT ASSOCIATION OF ITALIAN MANUFACTURERS OF MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT FOR CERAMICS

CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE ASSOMARMOMACCHINE.COM ITALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE MARBLE AND STONE MACHINERY INDUSTRIES

ACIMALL ACIMALL.COM ITALIAN WOODWORKING MACHINERY AND TOOLS MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION

CNR CNR.IT NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

ACIMGA ACIMGA.IT ITALIAN MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION OF MACHINERY FOR THE GRAPHIC, COVERTING AND PAPER INDUSTRY ACIMIT ACIMIT.IT ITALIAN TEXTILE MACHINERY ASSOCIATION AMAFOND AMAFOND.COM ITALIAN FOUNDRY MACHINERY AND PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION ANCE ANCE.IT NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUILDERS ANEV ANEV.ORG NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WIND ENERGY APER APER.IT RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION ASSOCOMAPLAST ASSOCOMAPLAST.ORG ITALIAN PLASTICS AND RUBBER PROCESSING MACHINERY AND MOULDS MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION ASSOFOODTEC ASSOFOODTEC.IT ITALIAN ASSOCIATION OF MACHINERY AND PLANT MANUFACTURERS FOR FOOD PRODUCTION, PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION ASSOMAC ASSOMAC.COM NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ITALIAN MANUFACTURERS OF FOOTWEAR, LEATHERGOODS, TANNERY MACHINES AND ACCESSORIES

TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

COTEC COTEC.IT FOUNDATION FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION ENEA ENEA.IT ITALIAN NATIONAL AGENCY FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES, ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FEDERMACCHINE FEDERMACCHINE.IT NATIONAL FEDERATION OF ASSOCIATIONS OF MANUFACTURERS OF CAPITAL GOODS INTENDED FOR INDUSTRIAL AND HANDICRAFTS MANUFACTURING PROCESSES FEDERPROGETTI FEDERPROGETTI.IT ITALIAN FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL PLANT ENGINEERING GIMAV GIMAV.IT ITALIAN MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION OF MACHINERY, ACCESSORIES AND SPECIAL PRODUCTS FOR GLASS PROCESSING UCIMA UCIMA.IT ITALIAN PACKAGING MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION UCIMU - SISTEMI PER PRODURRE UCIMU.IT ASSOCIATION OF ITALIAN MANUFACTURERS OF MACHINE TOOLS, ROBOTS, AUTOMATION SYSTEMS AND ANCILLARY PRODUCTS UNACOMA UNACOMA.COM NATIONAL UNIONS OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINE MANUFACTURERS

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ANNOTATED INDEX ACIMGA 86 Acta Energy 22 Alenia Aeronautica 20, 22, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 Alta 87 Amut 22, 38, 39, 40, 41 ANCE 118 Angelantoni 58, 59, 72, 74, 77 APER 15, 56 Archimede 74, 76, 77 Archimede Solar Energy 74 Astaldi 119 Auxel 149 Bonatti 119 Brianza Plastica 120, 121 Busi Impianti 119 Calp 149 Cimolai 119 Clivet 89 CMC Ravenna 119 CNR 34 Comer 58 Cotec 108, 152, 153 Davi 86, 94, 96, 97 Dema 20 Denver 91 Drillmec 142 Ducati Energia 22 Ecoware 59 Elettronica Santerno 59 ENEA 34, 74 Enel 2, 58, 59, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74 Energy Resources 20 Eni 21, 26, 27, 28, 29 Faam 22, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35

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Federmacchine 91 Federprogetti 119 FIP Industriale 119 Fisia Italimpianti 83 Flainox 90 Fluidotecnica 46 Fluidotecnica Sanseverino 23 FOMAS 87, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103 Fraccaroli 91 Fri-El 59 Galdabini 91 Ghines 91 Giuliani Tecnologie 90 Globeco 22, 23, 42, 44, 45, 46 Goglio 86 Impregilo 59, 78, 81, 82, 83 Intermek 90 Italcementi 121, 136, 137, 138, 139 Italprogetti 88, 113, 114, 115 Leitner Technologies 58, 59, 62, 63, 64 Leitwind 58, 60, 62, 63, 64 Loccioni 59 Magaldi 87, 104, 106, 107, 108 Magneti Marelli 34, 35 Martini 126 Maus 91 Meccanica Nova 90 Microvett 22 Moncada Energy 59 Montello 41 Mossi & Ghilsofi 23 Olmi 126 OMS Impianti 87 Optoi Group 88

Pirelli 46 Power Systems 149 Pramac 120, 122, 124, 125, 126 REM Technology 21 Resinex 23, 46 Robur 89 Ropatec 59 Saipem 28, 119 Salini 119 Salvagnini 91 Saviola 87 Seda 86 SELI 119 Seves 121, 129, 130, 131, 132 Siac 59 Soilmec 142 Solsonica 59 Sorema 23 Soriani 149 Syac 23 Tecnimont 119 Tecnomatic 23 Termoresine 90 Tesmec 120 Todini 119 Torielli 90 Tozzi Nord 59 Trevi 121, 142, 143, 144, 145 TST 120, 121 Turboden 89 UCIMU - SISTEMI PER PRODURRE 96 UMPI Elettronica 120 WRS Recycling 23 Zamperla 121, 146, 149, 150, 151

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