CUNEO (ITALPRESS) – Edison Next and Michelin Italiana have inaugurated a system of facilities to decarbonize and optimize energy consumption at the Cuneo plant, the Group’s largest site in Western Europe for tire production, cutting its CO2 emissions by about 18,000 tons a year. The inauguration was attended by the president of the Piedmont Region, Piedmont Alberto Cirio, and the mayor of Cuneo Patrizia Manassero.The system of interventions carried out by Edison Next will enable the plant to anticipate reaching the 2030 goal of reducing emissions by 50 percent compared to 2010 and to advance toward the next target of carbon neutrality by 2050 by being able to count on a plant already prepared for the use of biomethane and hydrogen. “The new trigeneration plant built by Edison Next is a fundamental step in the decarbonization path of the Cuneo plant. We are already close to the goal that the Group has given us at the 2030 horizon, which is to halve CO2 emissions compared to 2010 – today we are at -47 percent – and this plant will allow us to reach this goal well in advance and put the next targets in our sights,” said Simone Rossi, manager of the Michelin Cuneo plant. “After celebrating 60 years of activity last year and having inaugurated the Innovation Hub at CIM4.0, this new stage is further confirmation of the innovative spirit of the Cuneo plant, which continues to play a leading role within the Michelin Group and in the Italian manufacturing scene,” he added. “We are very pleased to have reached another important stage in the journey we started with Michelin Italiana about 3 years ago. The commissioning of these plants at the Michelin plant in Cuneo, in fact, is a concrete demonstration of how, working in partnership, it is possible to create paths that meet the sustainability goals of individual companies and transform decarbonization into a tool to increase their competitiveness in their reference markets. For this project, Edison Next has activated territorial synergies and deployed its platform of services and expertise with the aim of making available to Michelin all the technologies needed to achieve medium-term goals, while already integrating the flexibility needed to be able to respond to long-term ones,” said Giovanni Brianza, Ceo of Edison Next.At the plant, capable of producing 13 million car tires per year, Edison Next has installed and commissioned a highly efficient and flexible trigeneration plant with a capacity of 23 MWe capable of simultaneously generating electricity, steam for tire production and water for heating and cooling. This trigeneration plant is complemented by an integrated thermal energy production system through a group of boilers, one of which is fueled by wood biomass from a certified short chain, thus enhancing resources and synergies at the territorial level and further contributing to the project’s sustainability goals. Edison Next has also installed three photovoltaic systems-one on the ground and two on the parking canopies-that power the plant’s electrical grid. Together, these systems allow the manufacturing plant to be substantially autonomous from an energy needs standpoint. In addition, the plants have already been designed to increase the green share over time: in particular, the trigeneration plant is already set up to use 100 percent biomethane and 10 percent hydrogen. (ITALPRESS).-Photo: Michelin press office-
