Snam : acquires Enersi Sicilia to build its first biomethane plant

San Donato Milanese, 3 December 2018 - Snam, through its subsidiary Snam4Mobility, acquired, for a value of approximately 2 million euro, 100% of Enersi Sicilia Srl, a company that owns the authorization for the development of a plant to convert biomethane from urban solid waste in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily.

This acquisition will allow Snam to build its first biomethane plant that will be able to manage 36,000 tons per year of urban waste, providing neighboring municipalities with a totally renewable solution to the problem of waste disposal.

The plant will be built by leveraging the managerial and technical expertise of the subsidiary IES Biogas, which will oversee its development and construction.

Snam CEO, Marco Alverà, commented: 'This acquisition marks a further step for Snam in the field of renewable energy and confirms our commitment to developing new energy transition businesses and our role as an accelerator of the Italian biomethane value chain. Biomethane has the potential to significantly reduce carbon dioxide, in Italy and beyond, and improve the management of the waste cycle, promoting a circular economy'.

Snam4Mobility is the company through which Snam is developing refueling infrastructure for compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) vehicles. The growing interest in the sustainable methane and biomethane mobility market demonstrates the great potential of alternative uses of gas.

Biomethane is a renewable energy source derived from a process of purification of biogas, which is obtained from the exploitation of products and by-products of the agricultural and agro-industrial chain and from the organic part of urban waste. Biomethane can be fed into the natural gas transport infrastructure.

A study carried out by Ecofys for the European Gas for Climate consortium (which includes Snam and eight other companies and associations) estimated that the production and use of biomethane and other renewable gases in existing infrastructure would enable Europe to meet the climate targets of the Paris Agreement, saving around 140 billion euro per year by 2050.