Renzi sees US-Italian energy cooperation

(By Paul Virgo).
    (ANSA) - Rome, March 29 - Premier Matteo Renzi showed that he intends to use a four-day visit to the United States to flaunt Italy's business champions when he kicked off the visit in Nevada on Tuesday.
    Renzi's first engagement was a trip to ENEL's Stillwater plant, which he said demonstrated the way to move forward. "Stillwater is a symbol of the possible cooperation between the USA and Italy," Renzi said at the groundbreaking combined solar energy and geothermal power plant. "The future is energy and technology. "If we invest in technology, we can create a new world.
    "This is big space for cooperation between the USA and Italy. We can cooperate not just in traditional fields, but in renewable energies too. "Old values and new energies are the strategy of friendship between Italy and the United States". The premier said Italy "should be proud of" ENEL as it is a global firm whose heart and mind remain in Italy.
    "We will continue growing it, including via innovative ultra broadband projects (which) we will present on April 7," the premier said. Renzi also announced Tuesday that ENEL Green Power, ENEL's renewable energy subsidiary, has won a 1.5-billion-euro contract in Mexico. "In Nevada more good news arrives with Enel Green Power," Renzi said via Twitter. "1.5-billion-euro Mexico competition won. Increasingly leader in energy #Italypride (#orgoglioItalia). Renzi visits Chicago on March 30, Boston on March 31, and takes part in the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, on April 1.
    The premier said on Facebook Tuesday that Italy will mark the 30th anniversary of its connection to the Internet on April 30. Regions and schools will hold events, and the government will seek bids from ultra broad band providers in what will be its first such request for bids aimed at bringing high-speed Internet throughout Italy by 2020, Renzi said. "Italy was the fourth European country to get connected after Norway, Britain and East Germany (on April 30, 1986)," Renzi wrote, referring to the connection by scientists at the National Research Center in Pisa. "(That date) lives on in the minds and hearts of the Internet pioneers - those who imagined, wanted and made the connection to the computer network a reality. "First among them are Stefano Trumpy, Luciano Lenzini and Blasco Bonito, who were in Pisa on the first Internet Day - all men from the CNR". The premier added the government is "committed to filling the digital gap over the next four years" by bringing high-speed Internet to every Italian citizen.