Italian energy company Edison Energia has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with electrical cable manufacturer Prysmian.
Under the “multi-year” corporate PPA, Prysmian will purchase power from a 150MWp solar PV plant in the Viterbo province in central Italy. Prysmian said the deal would supply around 25% of its current annual electricity consumption in Italy.
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Maria Cristina Bifulco, chief investor relations, sustainability and communication officer at Prysmian said: “By securing a long-term supply of renewable energy, we are not only enhancing our environmental impact but also benefiting from stable energy costs.”
Prysmian’s chief purchasing officer, Laura Colli, added that the agreement is a “key component of Prysmian’s sourcing strategy.”
Utility-scale solar has had a resurgence in Italy over the last two years. Over 3GW of utility-scale solar PV capacity was added in 2024 in Italy, according to national trade body Italia Solare, in a significant expansion of the sector’s capacity compared with previous years.
Utility-scale solar has taken over the mantle from residential PV in the Italian market; the end of the government’s Superbonus scheme for residential solar adoption saw the latter decline by over 20% in 2024 while greater activity in the utility-scale sector pushed Italy’s total solar additions to their highest level since 2011.
The European solar PPA market has been marked by falling prices and increased corporate demand over recent months. PPA reports from both LevelTen Energy and Pexapark showed that prices had fallen across 2024, to the extent that Pexapark recorded “accelerated frequency of low, zero and negative pricing hours”.
Notably, Italy was the only European market where the number of negative pricing hours did not rise over the last year.
Sustained low PPA prices have simultaneously drawn corporations to long-term offtake deals and ushered in new innovations in PPA types and structures, the reports said. Political and regulatory changes have also pushed companies towards PPAs and away from schemes like Contracts for Difference across much of the continent.
