Eni is focusing on decarbonised energy to power them

The latest development dates back to mid-July, when Eni signed a letter of intent with the UAE-based company Khazna Data Centres, a global leader in large-scale digital infrastructure, to set up a joint venture aimed at developing an “AI Data Centre Campus”, a hub focused on artificial intelligence with a total IT capacity of 500 megawatts. The project will be centred on Ferrera Erbognone, in Lombardy, where the group led by Claudio Descalzi has built its Green Data Centre, which houses HPC6, one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet.

The project forms part of the bilateral strategic partnership, which was launched at the end of February during the state visit by the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, and the summit with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and aims to achieve a total IT capacity of up to 1 gigawatt in Italia. The initiative will enable Eni – as Descalzi himself reiterated last February during the update on the business plan – to develop a new business capable of capitalising on the strategic advantage enjoyed by the group, which possesses a crucial combination of factors to ensure the full development of the project: advances in the field of high-performance computing infrastructure, the availability of company-owned industrial sites for the construction of new data centres (Eni estimates, in this regard, that there are around 200 hectares already suitable for this purpose, as well as its expertise and experience in the development and management of gas and renewable energy plants.

This is no small matter, given the high levels of energy consumption associated with data centres. It is no coincidence that, when presenting the group’s project in February, Descalzi explained to the financial community that Eni intended to combine energy generation with carbon capture and storage (CCS) alongside the roll-out of this infrastructure. This would enable data centres – which are, by their very nature, major energy consumers – to be powered by reliable ‘blue’ energy, thereby ensuring the gradual decarbonisation of the supply chain in an integrated manner.

This model has been fully incorporated into the partnership with the Emirati side, which will lead to the creation of the data centre campus: the infrastructure will therefore be powered by ‘blue power’ supplied by Eni, which will provide the campus with low-emission electricity generated by a new, high-efficiency natural gas-fired power station, designed to capture CO₂ emissions, which will be channelled to the CCS hub in Ravenna, where the group is working in tandem with Snam.