Trieste's waste-to-energy plant opens the doors to the city

An open day to show how a complex plant works

Trieste's recently renovated waste-to-energy plant opens its doors to the city to show how the waste treatment, electricity generation and innovative environmental protection systems work. On Saturday 28 October, at 10.00 a.m., citizens will be able to enter the gates of the plant in Via Errera, 11 for a guided tour led by Hestambiente technicians, the Herambiente company (itself part of the Hera Group) that manages the plant.

The morning programme

After a welcome and registration, the programme includes a multimedia illustration of the waste-to-energy plant's processes, also in the light of the substantial renovation completed last year and made visible to all the people of Trieste by the new colour taken on by the chimney, now in progressive shades of blue, fully set against the adjacent sea horizon. This is an aspect that goes beyond mere aesthetics, because it contributes to the redevelopment of the area's landscape, in full coherence with the Hera Group's policy of social responsibility towards the territory. Afterwards, visitors will be guided on a tour of the actual plant, again accompanied by technical personnel, whom they can contact if they have any curiosity about how the facility works. The visit, which is expected to last about two hours, will then conclude with an aperitif and the handing out of a gadget to participants.

Plant revamping: even more energy efficiency and environmental protection

The revamping in 2022 involved a series of measures for the waste-to-energy plant that further increased its efficiency and reliability, as well as having a positive impact on safety and environmental protection. In addition to the revamping of one of the treatment lines, which improved operational continuity and further secured the waste cycle of the FVG Region, the turbine, the real beating heart of the industrial complex, was regenerated, and now generates 145 GWh of electricity/year. The plant is thus now able to feed enough energy into the grid to meet the needs of about 180 thousand people, over 15 thousand more than before the revamping. The set of improvements, among others, also concerned the further enhancement of operator safety and environmental protection, bearing in mind, however, that the Trieste plant already represented an European excellence, with emission levels of about 20% of what was allowed by law, thus with a safety level of 80% compared to national limits.

How to register

For security and organisational reasons, places available will be limited.
It is therefore necessary to register by Thursday 26 October at https://forms.office.com/e/T7rBWxU8Y4. Registrations will be considered in temporal order. If the maximum number of participants is reached, excess requests will be handled in subsequent meetings, organised in the coming months.