ENEL OPEN INNOVABILITY CHALLENGE® | Biodiversity Innovations for Sustainability improvement at renewable energy plants

24/05/2021 - Enel

Challenge Expiration Date: June 25, 2021

Reward$15,000


Abstract

Enel Green Power is looking for new tools and techniques, enabling strategies aimed at improving the environmental sustainability and biodiversity preservation of its renewable installations, as photovoltaic plants both on land and floating, wind farms and/or hydroelectric plants. These solutions could be applied at all stages throughout a project’s life cycle, from early design, through the construction, operations and the decommissioning for new and existing plants.


OVERVIEW

The protection of biodiversity is one of the most important values by which a Company's sustainability is measured. Preserving ecosystems and species means respecting life, the Planet's natural heritage, places, and communities' symbols.

The preservation of biodiversity is key in the fight against climate change: an effective implementation of nature-based solutions could be an additional lever to reach the target of maintaining global warming below 1.5°C by 2030.

Enel Green Power (EGP), a global leader in the development and management of energy production from renewable sources (wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal), is aware of the value of the ecosystems and of biodiversity and is committed to the responsible management of natural resources along all of the phases of its plants worldwide, starting from the design, construction, operation and decommissioning.

The protection of biodiversity is a strategic objective of Enel's environmental policy. It is regulated by a specific internal policy, which defines the guidelines for all the Group's biodiversity protection initiatives. EGP has an integrated ecosystem-based approach to preserve the biodiversity and to promote the ecosystem services through an effective implementation of nature-based solutions to maximize environmental benefits and minimize ecological impacts.

With this initiative, EGP is committed to reach even more challenging targets, in order to increase its sustainability, looking for innovative strategies and models to preserve local flora and fauna, to be complementary with the initiatives already in place in its plants.

This Challenge provides contribution to the following SDGs:

  • SDG 13: “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”;
  • SDG 15: "Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss".


Meet our challenge!


Description

BACKGROUND

Climate change and biodiversity loss are strictly interconnected: climate change is a relevant driver of biodiversity loss on one side and biodiversity loss worsens the climate crisis on the other side. In order to reach the target of limiting the global warming to 1.5°C, CO2 emissions have to be cut in half by 2030. This goal can be achieved by increasing the growth of the renewable energies that needs to be managed to avoid biodiversity loss (e.g. habitat fragmentation). Indeed, renewable plants can contribute to the potential enhancement of biodiversity and restoration of ecosystems within the infrastructure matrix, as for example, providing refuges for specific animals (e.g. fish, mammals).

This Challenge has to be considered in this framework, investigating solutions and strategies that will allow EGP plants to be more sustainable in the energy transition scenario through adequate management interventions enabling the biosphere resilience to climate change, identifying the hotspots of vulnerability and resilience of the ecosystems. Browse openinnovability.com to diver some representative examples of existing EGP plants and initiatives aimed at preserving biodiversity.


THE CHALLENGE

Enel Green Power is looking for new tools and techniques, enabling strategies aimed at improving the environmental sustainability and biodiversity preservation of its renewable installations, as photovoltaic plants both on land and floating, wind farms and/or hydroelectric plants. These solutions could be applied at all stages throughout a project’s life cycle, from early design, through the construction, operations and the decommissioning for new and existing plants.

The proposals should include technological and non-technological solutions for the improvement of habitat management and protection of flora and fauna wildlife, avian, terrestrial and aquatic, aiming at the development and the enhancement of eco-system services and of biodiversity restoration. Solutions will have to identify the most suitable conditions for the co-existence of renewable power generation plants and healthy ecosystems, avoiding, e.g.: habitat fragmentation, exotic and invasive species introduction and/or creating more resilient habitat for some species, as pollinator-friendly ones. This list is not exhaustive and the proposals could address additional mitigation actions to restore and preserve biodiversity.

As mentioned above, EGP has initiated pilot crop cultivation projects to pollinate plants with bees. Pollinator-friendly proposals are welcome provided that they introduce distinctive and innovative aspects as compared to conventional pollinator-friendly solutions.


Meet our challenge!


Biodiversity-new-1280x799_SDG2





Tipologia: Challenge prize

Fonte: https://openinnovability.enel.com/projects/Biodiversity-Innovations-for-Sustainability-improvement

Paese: Brasile, Messico, ITALIA, Svizzera, Spagna, Australia, Norvegia, Repubblica Ceca, India, Regno Unito, Danimarca, Cina, Germania, Cile, Sudafrica, Serbia, Francia, Finlandia, Austria, Giappone, Vietnam, Federazione Russa, Paesi Bassi, Egitto, Argentina, Singapore, Malesia, Lituania, Svezia, Israele, Canada, Corea del Sud, Stati Uniti d'America, Belgio

SSD: 01 - Scienze matematiche e informatiche, 02 - Scienze fisiche, 03 - Scienze chimiche, 04 - Scienze della terra, 05 - Scienze biologiche, 06 - Scienze mediche, 07 - Scienze agrarie e veterinarie, 08 - Ingegneria civile e Architettura, 09 - Ingegneria industriale e dell'informazione, 10 - Scienze dell'antichità, filologico-letterarie e storico-artistiche, 11 - Scienze storiche, filosofiche, pedagogiche e psicologiche, 12 - Scienze giuridiche, 13 - Scienze economiche e statistiche, 14 - Scienze politiche e sociali