The Italian Prime Minister, Dr. Matteo Renzi, switches on the new National Norwegian Space Centre heating system, first prototype of the integrated system SmartCim
With a touching ceremony from Palazzo Chigi in Rome, today the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, has remotely turned on the new heating system of the National Norwegian Space Centre in Andøya, 400km over the Arctic Circle.
Watch the video of the ceremony:
“The real challenge for our country is to remember the past and create the future” said President Renzi. “When I visited Cimberio factory, last July, I touched the future. SmartCim is going in this direction. The quality of technological research, innovation and cooperation between Italy and Norway offers the opportunity to save money, to save energy and to give a message of sustainability”.
This is the first worldwide installation of an innovative technological system which allows significant energy savings (30% savings), repurposing most of the existing infrastructure, without invasive interventions. This remarkable achievement is obtained without restructuring and suspending activities, therefore offering an additional significant saving in terms of money and time.
“Energy saving is very important for us. We are very honoured to host the first installation of SmartCim” said Roger Enoksen, director of the Norwegian Space Centre. “This project is a new step, not only for our centre but also for cooperation relationships between Italy and Norway”.
“This day is unique” added Giorgio Novello, the Italian Ambassador in Norway, who took part in the event, “because it embodies the perfect partnership between our two countries, able to join Italian creativity and Norwegian liability”.
It is a very innovative system which allows to modernize existing plants by improving their effectiveness, reducing the energy and management costs, increasing the intelligence of the entire system which can be remotely monitored in each individual element.
It is no coincidence that such a remote area of the planet, cold and inaccessible, was chosen for the first installation since it allowed to deal with a challenging situation and in extreme conditions.
The identified structure was in need of an energy retrofitting intervention for efficiency and cost savings, and there was also the desire to accurately quantify the energy optimization parameters. After its deployment, the electronic control system will start to process the data and sophisticated components will interpret them, reformulating their action in order to obtain an optimum balance of energy flows according to the demands of the system, thereby increasing the overall intelligence of the system during its use.
Worldwide there are more than 5.4 million buildings with excessively large energy consumptions that need optimization in order to reduce costs and meet regulatory and environmental requirements of the modern world.
The SmartCim project has particular relevance in this market and meets the objectives of the European Community to the point of bringing the Commission itself to invest 1.6 million euros through the Horizon 2020 program (G.A. No. 684086).
"With the innovations introduced by SmartCim project, it will no longer be necessary to restructure existing plants by destroying and then replacing them," said Roberto Cimberio, CEO of Cimberio S.p.A. "The goal of this project is to preserve existing plants, improving them with a significant reduction of energy costs (retrofitting) without interrupting the activities which take place inside these buildings."
"SmartCim is not only a project designed to save money, but also and above all to use the energy in the most efficient way" concluded Roberto Cimberio. “This project is starting with the blessing from the stars. We are in Norway, in a space centre, and two evenings ago we had the rare opportunity to see the aurora borealis”.
A weather balloon branded SmartCim has been released in the Andøya sky, bringing a symbolic message about the importance of scientific research in the energy field and the positive impact that it will have on the environment.