The president of the national association of local public transport, on the occasion of the Conference: “The hydrogen revolution in rail transport” held in Milan as part of the initiatives relating to the ‘European Year of Railways’.
“If we want to remain in the squad of leading countries in Europe active on hydrogen, however, we need a framework law on hydrogen, simplifications and lean regulation on train production, as in Germany and France”. Thus Andrea Gibelli, president of Asstra, the national association of local public transport, on the occasion of the conference ‘The hydrogen revolution in rail transport’ held in Milan as part of the initiatives relating to the ‘European Year of Railways’.
“Asstra – he explains – is working intensively in this direction with the competent ministries to eliminate the legal paradox that prohibits the financing of energy carriers such as blue hydrogen from biomethane even when innovative technologies from Eni and Snam are used that allow capture and storage. of CO2 with a negative balance, compared to the simple zero balance of green hydrogen, vice versa financeable.Therefore, there is room in the transition for blue which is greener than green, beyond the colors, respecting the expected result contained in the European Directive. We are well within the time to build an archipelago of industrial supply chains for the benefit of the economies of the territories, but we need to simplify and adapt the legislation to technologies that evolve very quickly “.
“The PNRR is an exceptional opportunity to lead the modernization of the country in which the transport system plays a key role. We must demonstrate with a sense of responsibility to exploit this second Marshall Plan well – he continues – Today as Asstra we present a series of projects of our important associates in terms of quality and scale, well distributed throughout the country to meet this challenge: they are Fnm, Ferrovie Appulo Lucane, Sardinian Arst and Ferrovie della Calabria. This takes place in an exceptional institutional context: it is no coincidence that this the government has courageously set up an ‘ad hoc’ ministry built by taking responsibility for parts of other ministries, alongside the guidelines (regulation, simplifications and resources) defined by the Ministry of Transport to fully grasp the extraordinary opportunities that the energy transition offers “.
“The experimental project of Fnm’s ‘Hydrogen Valley Lombarda’ fits into this framework, but it does not intend to simply replace diesel oil with hydrogen but rather has the ambition of fulfilling the precondition of involving the whole community in the energy transition of the territory: Brescia , Lake Iseo, the middle Serino valley and an important part of Valcamonica. In this logic, hydrogen as an energy vector triggers the change in the local economy in a broad sense, also affecting two other areas. Industry that aims to an ecosystem of electrolysers that also intercept the mobility of goods and look to energy-intensive industrial settlements in a fixed location (eg cement factories). That of the citizen, of the cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO and of human expectations (present in this area from over 10,000 years) to live in their own territory and spend their knowledge there. This is the challenge within the challenge: to create economic spaces, s ociali, geographical, environmental attractive for young people, well beyond the 14 trains and 40 buses that are included in the project “.
“We wanted to design an industrial district that would attract ‘start-ups’ (and the patents developed by them, such as the one to stabilize the transport of hydrogen in methane pipelines), create incubators and start economies of scale around the domestic, industrial and not only mobility – he concludes – The project contains scalable and economically sustainable solutions also in other territories that have similar or comparable enabling conditions: public ownership of the lines and land in service, very short physical chain (e.g. hydroelectric plants close to the railway line) , further unnecessary infrastructure. This is precisely the case of the projects in Puglia, Calabria, Campania and Sardinia where our associates operate “.
Source-www.adnkronos.com