Enel Green Power : Sustainable Electricity for Mexican Schools

New light for the Mexican schools Ejido de San Francisco and Manuel José Othón. Thanks to two solar panels donated by Enel Green Power, students and teachers living in the semi-desert region of San Luis Potosí will have continuously lighted schoolrooms and stable access to energy to power their well. Both panels come from the Dominica wind farm and are the crowning achievement of the sustainable worksite model that was implemented by EGP to carry out the project.

With a capacity of 1.5 KW each, the solar panels now installed in the schools were helping power the 'sustainable worksite' at the Dominica wind farm just a few months ago, generating electricity for the construction sites and helping reduce the use of diesel engines and corresponding CO₂ emissions.

The donation to the schools of Ejido de San Francisco and Manuel José Othón therefore represents the pinnacle of the sustainable path followed by the Dominica plant, which has included separate collection of ordinary waste and worksite byproducts, separate processing of recyclable materials and the use of special temporary deposits, made of isolating materials in order to avoid soil pollution, to contain the hazardous waste that needed to be stored at the construction site before its final disposal at officially designated sites.

The first examples of sustainable worksites come from Italy, where Enel Green Power has started to apply this innovative model at its San Pellegrino (Bergamo) and Mura (Brescia) hydropower plants for extraordinary maintenance operations and to improve efficiency, also aiming at applying safety measures at the two plants, which were built in the early 20th century.

Each stage of construction is based on sustainability: from selection of the various materials to be used to environmentally-friendly management of the worksite once construction has begun, and also once the plant is operational. Additionally, the 'sustainable worksite' model involves constant monitoring of operations with the aim ofmapping worksites' environmental performance, in order to produce continuous improvement mechanisms and achieve a virtuous and fruitful working relationship with contractors and suppliers.