FBK’s Sustainable Energy Center laboratories at the new Hydrogen Hub in Rovereto

The new hydrogen hub will be built in Rovereto in a portion of the compound now used by Arcese. The logistics and trucking industrial group will retain its Office Building on Via Fornaci, while Palazzina Officina, the workshop building, will be occuoied again by Trentino Sviluppo and will become a technology hub for  hydrogen. In fact, the new laboratories of Fondazione Bruno Kessler‘s Sustainable Energy Center, a flagship in renewable energy research on the national and European scene, will be hosted there. This completes the strategic plan for new science and technology hubs in Trentino, which sees the Province and Trentino Sviluppo committed to building in the coming years, alongside Polo Meccatronica and the Progetto Manifattura green hub, the new Life Sciences Hub – also in Rovereto in the area now available after Ariston left – and the Hydrogen Pole.

The agreement for the construction of the Hydrogen Hub in Via Fornaci was signed on July 28, 2023 by the Arcese Immobiliare Spa director Euleterio Arcese, tArcese Trasporti Spa president and CEO Matteo Arcese, Trentino Sviluppo president Sergio Anzelini, and the provincial councillor for Economic Development, Research and Labor Achille Spinelli.

“This protocol,” explains Councillor Achille Spinelli, “entails two orders of benefits: it gives new momentum to the agreement signed five years ago by Trentino Sviluppo, Arcese and Dana Italia to enhance the industrial area of Mori Stazione, and it represents a milestone in the field of industrial research on hydrogen, which is essential to keep Trentino based companies competitive in the globalized market and to ensure the economic and industrial development of our local communities that is both significant and sustainable.

The agreement provides for the consensual termination of the lease agreement in place since 2009. Arcese will retain – under an ordinary lease – the Palazzina Uffici office building and will have an option on one of the lots in the Casotte di Mori area, to move its “Control Tower” there.

Instead, the Palazzina Officina workshop building will become the heart of the new Hydrogen Hub, where a laboratory will be set up to study battery, flow and next-generation energy storage technologies and hydrogen fuel cell accumulators. The hub will also house the new headquarters of Fondazione Bruno Kessler‘s Sustainable Energy Center, which is committed to researching innovative solutions for green hydrogen production and initiatives related to energy networks, microgrids, distribution and transmission networks.  In this regard, the location in Via Fornaci proves to be strategic, as it fosters local and system policies for the expansion of the hydrogen and battery supply chain, including infrastructure projects, such as the introduction of hydrogen along the Brenner freeway axis.

The Sustainable Energy Center also has a strong international reputation. Evidence of this is the recent award to Fondazione Bruno Kessler of the “IPCEI Batterie 2 – Eubatin” project, in which 12 European countries and some 40 companies are participating, approved in May 2022 by the Ministry of Economic Development. In parallel, the foundation is engaged in the preparation and start-up phase of the “IPCEI Idrogeno 1” project, together with ENEA and other six Italian companies.

In compliance with the planned timeframe, it was decided to temporarily set up spaces to be dedicated to laboratories inside the new “Be Factory” area of Progetto Manifattura, that is expected to be available by early summer 2024, where the machinery financed by these research projects can be installed and put into operation, pending the completion of the work on the new Hydrogen Hub.

Trentino Sviluppo press release (m.d.c.)