Press releases and news

The Italian research vessel Laura Bassi has concluded the mission which brought it to sail for two months in Antarctica in support of research activities on physical and biogeochemical dynamics of specific areas of the continent. The return to the port of Lyttelton in New Zealand marked the end of the 39th scientific expedition to Antarctica, funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) as part of the National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA), managed by the National Council of research (Cnr) for scientific coordination, ENEA for planning and logistics at the Antarctic bases and the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics – OGS for the technical and scientific management of the icebreaker Laura Bassi.

With the simulation of the landing on Mars and the beginning of the isolation period, the Amadee-24 mission, organized by the Austrian Space Forum in collaboration with the Armenian Space Agency, has started to pave the way for future space exploration missions.

ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Environment and Sustainable Economic Development, in collaboration with Gruppo HERA, has recently installed an innovative instrument for the real-time monitoring of the microbial content (i.e. E. coli) in reclaimed water.

The 39th research expedition has just concluded at the Italian Mario Zucchelli base in Antarctica, where over 20% of power supply was provided by clean energy, thanks to the expansion of a photovoltaic system, capable of "capturing" solar radiation -available 24 hours a day during the austral summer-, and the optimization of a wind farm, capable of converting katabatic winds, among the most powerful on the planet, into energy.

ENEA and Rome University La Sapienza have developed an innovative analysis technique to identify and quantify materials hidden in old or disused buildings, to be repurposed in architectural redevelopment projects or new constructions from a circular economy perspective. The study, conducted as part of the ENEA ES-PA project and published in the journal Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, has shown that over 95% of demolition materials can be reused for renovating the structure itself (35% ) and for other uses (60%), without ending up in a landfill.

In 2023, despite a general decline in residential sales, real estate investments aimed at getting a rental income showed how houses continue to be the most sought-after and safest real estate investment to protect italian families’ savings- heavily hit by inflation- based on data from the Fiaip National Real Estate Observatory, ENEA and I-Com (Institute for Competitiveness), regarding the performance of the real estate market last year and the forecasts for 2024.