By Michelle Froese | May 7, 2019 Enel S.p.A. announced the opening of its newest Innovation Hub in Boston at Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech startup incubator in the United States. The Hub will provide Enel, one of the world’s leading power and renewable energy companies, access to Greentown Labs’ startup community and innovation expertise. The Enel Innovation Hub expands upon the Enel Group’s existing footprint in Massachusetts’ clean-energy economy. Massachusetts is home to the North American headquarters of both Enel Green Power – an owner and operator of renewables – and Enel X – Enel’s newest global business line dedicated to developing innovative products and digital solutions. “Enel is working relentlessly to boost the energy sector’s sustainability by implementing its open innovation model, whereby the new Boston Hub, coupled with the existing one in San Francisco, focuses our attention on the wealth of innovative solutions offered by North America, a strategic energy market which presents significant growth opportunities for our Group,” said Ernesto Ciorra, Enel’s Head of Innovation and Sustainability. The Hub at Greentown Labs will help foster Enel’s relationships with the best startups across the U.S., as well as enable strategic partnerships that will help further decarbonize and digitize the Group. Enel is among only nine large member corporations to have a dedicated space and staff working out of Greentown Labs. “We’re excited to be able to provide Boston’s startup community with the valuable resources that Enel has to offer,” said Dr. Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs. “Greentown Labs is dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs to create transformative energy technologies and our partnership with Enel will help support this mission as we’re able to offer our startup community additional support for the development of their technologies and access to Enel’s plants and facilities.” Greentown Labs will help Enel scout for startups that present solutions capable of solving challenges across all Group’s business lines. Selected startups will partner with Enel and receive support for the development of their technologies with access to all of the laboratories and the expertise of the Group worldwide as well as the possibility to test their solutions in Enel’s plants and facilities. Startups collaborating with Enel can access a wide network of international partners and Venture Capital funds, and, most importantly, will have the opportunity to scale their solutions on Enel’s operations around the world. Innovation is a core pillar of Enel’s strategy and the Group has invested, on average, $100 million annually since 2017 in innovation activities. Startups are important partners for Enel, with about 200 collaborations implemented over the last three years and more than 50 solutions from startups scaled up at global level.
Enel has opened its second US Innovation Hub, located at the Greentown Labs green energy start-up incubator in Boston. The move will allow the company increased access to US technology start-ups and partnerships. Enel said it was working to increase the sustainability of the energy sector and has spent $100m 2017 since each year on innovation, engaging in 200 collaborations with start-ups. The US operations of Enel Green Power and Enel X are already established in Massachusetts.