In conversation with Daniela Gentile, CEO of Ansaldo Green Tech

How is Ansaldo positioning itself to contribute to the energy transition in the UAE?

Ansaldo Energia has been working in the UAE for 28 years and has had a growing presence in the area. 

Its first project in the UAE was Mirfa in 1995, and the company’s activities in the country have grown from there. In 2010, Ansaldo built a plant in Abu Dhabi to localise more of its supply chain; in 2017, a Middle East service hub was established to provide rapid service to customers in the area; and in 2022, a diagnostics centre was opened to enable 24/7 remote monitoring of power plants and predictive diagnostics. 

Over the nearly three decades of its local operations, Ansaldo Energia has installed about 3.5GW and provides services for over 4GW of power. The successful story can be replicated with Ansaldo Green Tech, the subsidiary established in June 2021, dedicated to developing products to accelerate the energy transition, with a focus on optimising electricity storage and green hydrogen.

What energy storage technologies are Ansaldo Green Tech developing?

The UAE has an ambitious energy policy that aims to achieve 14GW of installed power from renewable sources by 2030, of which about 8GW will be from photovoltaic (PV) plants. However, PV plants are an intermittent source, so energy storage systems are needed.

Ansaldo Green Tech has identified two highly suitable energy storage technologies for accumulating large quantities of energy. 

The first technology works by compressing carbon dioxide from a closed “dome” system to tanks where the pressure can be released again to make the energy available once more. Ansaldo Green Tech is exploring the technology licensed by an Italian company called Energy Dome.

The second technology is the vanadium flow battery, a modular chemical battery with a starting size of 20 megawatt hours. This technology is owned by Largo Clean Energy, and Ansaldo Green Tech has signed a memorandum of understanding with them to incorporate a joint venture for the production of flow batteries. 

Both technologies present opportunities for collaboration within the context of the UAE’s energy policy.

Ansaldo Green Tech has identified two highly suitable energy storage technologies for accumulating large quantities of energy
Daniela Gentile, Ansaldo Green Tech

What green hydrogen technology is Ansaldo Green Tech working on in the UAE?

The UAE is carrying out important investments in the production of low-carbon fuels and green hydrogen with the aim of representing 25 per cent of the world’s green hydrogen market by 2030. 

The characteristics of the Gulf area make it well suited to the production of green hydrogen and for future collaborations in this segment of the energy market. 

Ansaldo Green Tech is developing two technologies for the production of electrolysers: one is suitable to decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial processes and to be coupled with nuclear power plants and the second is suitable for the production of hydrogen from intermittent sources of renewable energy 

In the next few months, production will begin for the first electrolysers at Ansaldo Energia’s premises in Genoa, Italy.

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