The redevelopment project for the entire site has been presented: the former thermal power station is set to become a tourist village just a short distance from the Po Delta regional park.
A sustainable urban regeneration project. This is the Delta Farm project presented in Porto Tolle on 17 April last, which envisages the complete decommissioning and demolition of the power station, to make way for a tourist village open to local entrepreneurs. A way of regenerating and redeveloping the industrial area, which at full capacity is expected to employ at least 400 people just a short distance from the Po Delta.
The initiative is part of the broader Futur-e programme promoted by Enel, which involves 23 power stations spread across the whole of Italy. "A model that, through public tenders and project competitions, can offer circular, sustainable and long-term solutions capable of transforming these 23 power stations into a new development opportunity for the area," the group explains.
The tender was won in May 2016 by Gruppo Human Company, following assessments by Enel, the Politecnico di Milano, the University of Padua and the Municipality of Porto Tolle. The Delta Farm village will be built on an area of 110 hectares. Of these, 20 will be forested, while the remainder will be dedicated to commercial activities, hospitality and sport. An investment of approximately 60 million euros and a project that, according to the tender winners, should be completed within twelve months of work beginning.
The chosen format is that of an open village — that is, a structure open to all entrepreneurs in the area and designed to give a boost to the traditional commercial activities of the Polesine: farming, fishing and, of course, tourism, particularly nature-based and sporting tourism.
The power station began generating electricity in 1980, and until the late 1990s produced up to 10 per cent of national energy (10–15 billion kWh per year). Output then declined until 2009, the year it ceased operations. During those years, the possibility of converting it to coal had been raised, but the authorisation processes were never completed, so much so that in 2014 Enel decided to abandon the project definitively. Environmental associations called during those years for a conversion to renewables, also to reabsorb the former power station's employees. That project, however, was never launched.
A new chapter therefore opens for the Porto Tolle power station, which will breathe new life into one of the most nature-rich areas in the whole country.