Eni signs agreement to convert the Calenzano storage facility into a solar park
A 50 million investment. In December 2024, an explosion at the fuel depot claimed the lives of five people
A 20-megawatt solar farm is to be built on the site of Eni’s fuel depot in Calenzano (Florence), the scene of the explosion in December 2024 that killed five people, injured around thirty and damaged buildings and sports facilities in the area. The memorandum of understanding setting out the energy multinational’s commitments was signed on 6 August by Giuseppe Ricci, Eni’s Director of Industrial Transformation, and Umberto Carrara, Chief Executive of Eni Industrial Evolution (both signed remotely) and, in person at the headquarters of the Tuscany Regional Government in Florence, by President Eugenio Giani and the Mayor of Calenzano, Giuseppe Carovani. The signing follows the agreement already announced eight months ago, after the controversy that followed the accident and the institutions’ request to cease activities related to fossil fuels.
The lifting of the seizure order on the site by the Prato Public Prosecutor’s Office last October enabled Eni to empty the tanks containing 40,000 tonnes of fuel and to commence the characterisation plan (which serves to detect contamination of the soil, the subsoil and groundwater) and to secure the 170,000 square metres of land, in preparation for dismantling and remediation. The conversion process will take a long time (at least four years). Eni’s investment is estimated at at least 50 million euros.
The group has undertaken to supply the local council with 5 per cent of the value of the electricity generated by the solar farm for 30 years (the plant’s lifespan) and to build a further small 1-megawatt solar farm, with a 1 MW storage system, which will be transferred to the Municipality of Calenzano to power the sports complex. Furthermore, the energy group will pay, ‘as a contribution to the local area’, €6.5 million, which will be used to restore the sports facilities damaged by the explosion and to build a new Olympic-sized swimming pool and a new sports hall. For its part, the Municipality of Calenzano plans to purchase a currently disused site (in Via delle Prata) from Eni to develop a hub for manufacturing and craft businesses.
“This project, which unfortunately stems from a tragedy, is an example of excellent collaboration between institutions and the private sector,” said Ricci and Carrara, “and must become a model for industrial reconversion, just as the Eni refinery in Livorno has been.” Chairman Giani acknowledged that Eni had made a significant commitment to safety and had listened to the needs of the local community: when the fuel depot was established in 1956, neither the nearby ‘Autostrada del Sole’ (the A1) nor the houses and factories that later sprang up all around it existed, and conditions were therefore very different from today’s. Mayor Carovani was also satisfied, emphasising: ‘Let us not forget the tragedy.’
