(Finance) – The agreement, signed today, Monday 3 June 2024, in the Gazzo Veronese glass factory, by the President of Assovetro, Marco Ravasi, and by the General Director, Walter da Riz, on the one hand and by the President of GSEPaolo Arrigoni, and the CEO, Vinicio Moses Vigilante, on the other, focuses on decarbonisation of the glass supply chainfocusing on the energy efficiency of the production plants of the companies associated with Assovetro, on the promotion of self-consumption configurations for sharing energyrenewable energyon the implementation of innovative and sustainable technologies, so as to encourage the improvement of the environmental performance of production processesthe pursuit of the European decarbonisation objectives and those indicated by the PNIEC and the implementation of the PNNR measures.
This was announced in a joint statement explaining that the The protocol will be valid for three years from the moment of signature.
“The Italian glass industry, through continuous innovation of its systems – underlined the President of Assovetro, eng. Marco Ravasi – has already started the process of energy transition and around 7 out of 10 companies have formalized a decarbonisation roadmap. This agreement will be a stimulus to continue on the path of transition and to seize all the opportunities deriving from the support mechanisms made available by the Government and managed by the GSE, so as to combine environmental and economic sustainability”.
“CO2 capture, electrification and green fuels are the three levers that could guarantee, by 2050, up to 80% reduction in total emissions from the Italian glass sector, second largest producer in Europe. From this perspective, the experimentation of new energy carriers, such as green hydrogen and biomethane, represent a valid solution for optimizing energy consumption and managing the production and transport challenges of glassworks”, he stated Paolo Arrigoni, president of the GSE.
“The GSE is alongside the industries, in coordination with the MASE, to identify solutions that guarantee access to decarbonisation levers for the entire sector”, so theCEO of the GSE, Vinicio Moses Vigilante.
Furthermore, according to the Protocol, Assovetro and GSE will collaborate in sector analyses inherent consumption, emissions, processes, from the point of view of technical and economic aspects and also to identify experimental projects of interest for the glass sector, from which technologically advanced solutions emerge that can be used for the diffusion of best practices in the territory, including the use of green hydrogen and support for the electrification of glass production.
They are also expected training and information initiatives and the establishment of a permanent working table to guarantee a technical-operational exchange on the issues of energy regulation and the technical rules for access to the mechanisms managed by the GSE, on the problems connected to the use of Carbon Capture and Storage technologies ( CCS), Carbon Utilization processes (CCU), Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and others.