Press releases and news

Due to global warming, within a few years new areas of Europe, Asia and America could become favorable environments for the spread of insects harmful to agriculture, such as the tomato moth (Tuta absoluta), affecting tomato, potato and eggplant crops.

A reduction in the indoor temperature during the summer of up to 3°C thanks to “green insulation” consisting of plants on the roofs and walls of buildings, which reduces heat flow by almost 50% through the shading and transpiration of plants arranged to protect against solar radiation. These are some of the latest findings of the ENEA project entitled “Green infrastructure to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and the quality of the microclimate in urban areas”, financed under the Programme Agreement for Electricity System Research 2019-2021 of the Ministry of Economic Development, now under the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

The engineering design of the first fusion demonstration power plant capable of safely and sustainably producing 300-500 MW of electrical power around mid-century has begun. Called DEMO (Demonstration Fusion Power Reactor), the plant will be able to meet the annual needs of around 1.5 million households. This was announced in Brussels by the EUROfusion Consortium – comprising 21 Italian organisations coordinated by ENEA, including the Institute for Plasma Science and Technology of the National Research Council (CNR-Istp) and the RFX Consortium – at the launch conference of Horizon EUROfusion, the new European fusion research programme co-funded by the European Commission through Euratom.

Interview with Minister Franceschini, “with the NRRP, the rediscovered centrality of culture” “Culture plays a critical role in the NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), demonstrating its rediscovered centrality. Investing in culture is a great lever of our economic policy, it’s a fundamental fact that ensures that we will continue along this path in the coming years, guaranteeing culture the resources it needs to become the fulcrum of Italy's sustainable growth and job creation”. These are the words of Culture Minister Dario Franceschini in an interview for the new issue of the ENEA Energia Ambiente e Innovazione magazine entitled “Science, Technology, Research: the great Alliance for Art” and published for the International Restoration Exhibition in Ferrara (8-10 June 2022).

ENEA researcher Viviana Cigolotti, 41, has been elected to the board of Hydrogen Europe Research, an association that brings together 108 international research institutions and is dedicated to energy development in the field of hydrogen. Viviana Cigolotti will be responsible for the Technical Committee in the field of hydrogen end-uses for stationary and industrial applications.

The European air quality monitoring system has one more ally, this time 100% Italian: the ENEA system for analysing and forecasting air pollution, MINNI, has joined the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service consortium (CAMS2_40) managed by the European Centre for Medium-term Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission.