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Lombardy Energy Cleantech Cluster

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General Information
The date when the cluster organisation was established: 
Monday, 23 March, 2009
Number of staff in the management team of the cluster organisation : 
1-5
Legal form of the cluster organisation: 
Registered Association
Regions: 
Lombardia
Cluster Excellence Label: 
Gold Label
Other Label: 
Lombardy Region Recognition as Regional Technology Cluster
Membership to other networks/partnerships: 
NameWebsite
Vanguard Initiative - Advanced Manufacturing for Energy Related Applications
http://www.s3vanguardinitiative.eu/cooperations/making-eu-global-leader-components-marine-renewables-and-offshore-energy-applications
Cluster Management Team: 
NameSurnamePositionTelephoneEmail
Carmen
Disanto
Cluster Manager
0039(0)258370810
direttore@energycluster.it
Marisa
Marini
ECCP Responsible Person
0039(0)258370814
marini@energycluster.it
Chiara
Jacini
Internationalisation Responsible
0039(0)258370806
c.jacini@confindustria.lombardia.it
Link to team description on the cluster's website: 
http://www.energycluster.it/en/about-us/governance/cluster-organization
Languages spoken: 
English
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Sectoral and Industrial Focus
Sectoral Industries: 
Electric Power Generation and Transmission
Environmental Services
Technology fields: 
Furnace and boiler technologies
Waste to energy - other
S3 EU priority areas: 
Energy distribution
Power generation / renewable sources
Emerging industries: 
Digital Industries
Environmental Industries
Areas of specialisation of the cluster not covered above: 
Energy efficiency, Green Building, Sustainable Manufacturing, Circular Economy
Composition of the cluster
Total number of members: 
127
Number of SME members: 
85
Number of larger company members: 
10
Number of research organisations/universities/technology centres: 
9
Number of other ecosystem actors : 
23
Link to the cluster members’ list: 
http://www.energycluster.it/en/members
Entrepreneurship and scale-up support facilities in the cluster's ecosystem (see "Organisation type"): 
Name and link of major players: 
NameWebsiteType
Enel Distribution
https://www.e-distribuzione.it
Larger Company
Politecnico di Milano
https://www.polimi.it
University
RSE
http://www.rse-web.it
Research Organisation
CAP HOLDING
http://www.gruppocap.it
Larger Company
Ariston Thermo Innovative Technologies
http://www.aristonthermo.com
Larger Company
Cluster Strategy
Mission/Objectives: 

Lombardy Energy Cleantech Cluster (LE2C) is the industrial cluster of Power Generation, transmission, distribution, energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable building. It operates as an organised network which facilitates communication along the entire supply chain in order to optimize products, services and final costs.

  • A tool for fostering innovation and competitiveness in companies, particularly in SMEs
  • Supporting future green growth promoting green solutions
  • Increasing companies visibility on the market

The mission of the Lombardy Energy Cleantech Cluster is to create synergies among its members in order to improve their innovation and competitiveness.

The cluster supports member companies in becoming more competitive by operating in the market with a wide portfolio, putting to use the support of academic institutions, involving R&D institutions and satisfying customers' needs.

 

LE2C strategy is a  process of constant growth which seeks to meet  the companies needs and to implement a development policy strongly focused on innovation and knowledge sharing with other clusters at the international level.

 

Do you have a formalised strategy?: 
Yes
Link: 
http://www.energycluster.it/en/about-us/strategy
Do you have a specific strategy focus that addresses internationalisation ?: 
Yes
Link: 
http://www.energycluster.it/en/opportunities-and-services
Services
Support services provided: 
Access to public support (regional/national programmes, innovation vouchers, etc.)
Facilitation of collaboration between members
Periodic Information dissemination
Promotion of activities (marketing/ visibility)
Details of support services: 

Lombardy Energy Cleantech Cluster support members operates along 3 main lines of intervention:

- R&D and Commercial Projects: helping members to participate at European calls, projects; fosetring technology transfer among members by creating opportunity to know each other and facilitating the matching. Informing costantly about market trends and opportunities al local, national and international level. - INTERNATIONALISATION: promoting international visibility of cluster members and Lombardy supply chian; fostering ability to operate on international markets as unique supplier; realizing worldwide cooperation with other cluster organizations thanks to the organization of company missions and B2B events.

- MATCHING: facilitating both bilateral cooperation between cluster firms and among other regional actors always keeping a business oriented approach.

Projects are developed mainly within the four thematic working groups Focus Areas and the horizontal area Circula Economy, that we set up, where research centres and businesses can work together to promote innovation, encourage technoloogy transfer and create viable business opportunities that deliver tangible benefits to cluster members operating in the same market area:

- Smart Energy Systems  (Energy Generation and Distribution)

- Sustainable Manufacturing (Sustainable industry, Energy Efficiency, Extended Lifetime)

- Green Building (Sustainable buildings, N-ZEB, feasibility and refurbishemet works)

- Water Energy Nexus (Water management, treatment and hydropower) 

and

- Circular Economy (horizontal area)

 

Cooperation Activities
International Cooperation
The main countries targeted by the cluster organisation: 
Brazil
Canada
Iran
Mexico
South Africa
Our cluster organisation undertook the following international activities to support our members: 
Participation at missions/events/study visits/fairs
Trans-national Cooperation
The main countries targeted by the cluster organisation: 
Austria
Denmark
France
Spain
United Kingdom
Our cluster organisation undertook the following trans-national activities to support our members: 
Participation at missions/events/study visits/fairs
Please explain: 

LE2C carries out European projects and benchmarking activities (exchange of information about markets trends and supply chians) and creates market opportunities to Cluster members organizing company missions and B2B events, in cooperation with transnational networks and intiatives.

Which clusters do you collaborate with?: 
GREEN TECH CLUSTER
TENERRDIS
CLEAN
OREEC
BASQUE ENERGY CLUSTER
ECOTECH QUEBEC, CAN
SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE
Support Programmes
Participation in Funded Support Programmes: 
European ProgrammesProject NameLinkName & Description (Regional/National)Link (Regional/National)
FP7
H2020
CIP/COSME
INTERREG
EIT KICs

VIDA - Value-added Innovation in fooD chAins (2018-2020): co-funded by the H2020-INNOSUP-01-2017 call, the project will start its activities in early Spring 2018. VIDA project is formed by ten partners, eight of them mature Clusters based in six European countries that gather together 700 European SMEs in the food-water-energy-KET sector. VIDA proposes to create a favour framework to link and match SMEs, exploit emerging business opportunities and tackle the current and future innovation challenges in food value chains.

NeSSIE - North Sea Solutions for Innovation in Corrosion for Energy (2017-2019): co-funded by EMFF (call: Blue Technology - transfer of innovative solutions to sea basin economies), project NeSSIE will tap into the existing knowledge of anti-corrosion technology / novel materials solutions in the maritime sector supply chain to develop demonstration projects for offshore renewables in the North Sea. The corrosion solutions, when developed and commercialised, will provide global growth and job creation opportunities in remote regions in the EU.

COS-CLUSTER-2014-3-04 (2015) - Qualified but not co-funded: The project International Cleantech Network Clusters for Excellence  (ICN4E)  will serve as a common platform for cluster excellence among 5 European clusters who have already established a high level of trust and strategic cooperation through the International Cleantech Network (ICN). LE2C will partecipate as a parter  at Benchmarking of Cluster Excellence activities, Cluster Manager Training, Improving SME services and dissemination activities (

FP7 - Regions Of Knowledge - European Funding (2013-2014): LE2C is one of the cluster subject of the Coolsweep Project. The project aimed at comparing 5 European clusters regions in the waste to energy sector for developing an integrated Action Plan. Euroimpresa Legnano (EU-IMP) , as cluster organization of LE2C, is the official partners of the projectwith a budget of 323.150 euro. As WP2 Leader, it has conducted the clusters swot analysis.

Call for expression of  interested issued by the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (2013): LE2C is part of the ICN European Cluster Strategic Partnership. The ICN ECSP was constituted with the aim to foster SMEs internationalisation, beyond Europe, with the development of the joint international strategy, which involes ICN cluster members.

coolsweep.org

Call for Consolidation and Development of Regional Technology Cluster by Lombardy Region (2016-2017): 50% cofinancing rate for the support of consolidation, further development and intercluster activities

Call for Regional Clusters by Lombardy Region (2014-2015): Grant of €50.000/year for the start-up and implementation of Regional Technology Clusters activities.

RIDITT Programme – Ministry of Economic Developemnt - national funding (2012) In the framework of ETICO project, LE2C firms were involved in training programmes with the scope of providing exchange of know how and competences between enterprises and universities. The final aim of the project was to foster product and process innovation in SMEs, in order to increase their competitiveness, and to start up new entrepreneurial inititives thanks to the cooperation between business the research world. LE2C received a co-funding of 50.000 euros.

http://www.fesr.regione.lombardia.it/wps/portal/PROUE/FESR/Bandi/DettaglioBando/Agevolazioni/cluster-tecnologici-lombardi-por-fesr-2014-2020
Relevant Project References: 
www.nessieproject.com; see ICN network activities
Promotion
Success Story / Achievements: 

From Supply Chain to Value Chain

The project started with a big effort and a complex work of the cluster organisation by mapping all the companies to identify each role among the supply chain in the power generation field. The mapping methodology used, which was considered by other clusters/international actors as best practice,  consisted in different steps:

  1. The choice of boundaries: first identifying the productive system, second identifying the enterprises and the production system’s structure and third classifying them in a pyramid of:
  2. Classification of the enterprises by market areas and commissions: classifying them in market areas of the cluster (for example Nuclear Power Plants, Renewable Energy, Hydraulic and Geothermal Power Plants, etc.)
  3. Organisation of the companies in working groups/ Commissions: space where common interests and needs of the enterprises are developed for the implementation of joint projects, thanks to the consistency in terms of clients, product and technologies.
  4. Subdivision of the market areas of the conventional power plant and waste-to-energy and biomass plant in different islands: services and products which characterise the different plants (boiler island, turbine, BOP, treatment and distribution island), in order to identify the joint potentials of the companies.

The final objective is to promote the single supplier to think less in terms of single components’ cost and more in terms of finished product’s cost. The result of this process is that now the companies can offer together a complete package to the clients, also on a turnkey basis.

For that reason we can say that the Energy Cluster is moving form a supply chain a value chain: the companies members, thanks to the sharing of knowledge, know – how and the Technology Integration fostered by the cluster, can offer an innovative offer characterised by more high quality in terms of technological components and less costs. 

 They become stronger and more competitive because:

  • They operate in an organized network which facilitates communications throughout the entire chain in order to optimize services and final costs.
  • They increment their skills thanks to the knowledge shared over the entire production process by uniting competitiveness and cooperation.
  • They can exploit advantages deriving from relations with institutions, the world of research, centres of excellence and big clients.

 

Why should partners choose you for cooperation?: 

LE2C STRENGHTS:

The Lombardy Energy Cleantech Cluster (LE2C) is the beating heart of Italian excellence in the energy sector, with over one hundert companies, generating €23bn and employing 31,000 people across the entire Region.

  • Located in Lombardy Region, one of the "4 Motors for Europe" region; second region for Energy production.
  • Collaboration between SMEs and Large companies, also intersectorial.
  • Able to cover the entire supply chain for the conventional, waste to energy and biomass power plants
  • Excellent cluster organization: Gold Certification
  • Relevant international presence: 70% of members export covering 98 countries