Spanish utility Iberdrola has signed an agreement with solar developer ib vogt for the construction of a 245MW solar PV plant in Sicily, northern Italy.
A further 60MW could be added to the project, bringing its total to 305MW. The companies are expected to begin construction at the solar plant – called Fenix – in March, and once operational, will be Italy’s largest solar PV plant, according to the utility.
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Although most of the capacity additions in the first half of 2023 came from the northern part of Italy, Sicily has had the most activity from utility-scale projects in the past three years. Distributed generation remains the main driver for the growth of solar in the country, which added over 5.2GW of capacity in 2023, the most in over a decade.
Iberdrola aims to have an installed capacity of 400MW in Italy by 2025, as part of its plans to expand its Italian footprint. It commissioned its first solar project in the country in 2022, which has an installed capacity of 23MW, before adding another plant last year with a capacity of 7MW and starting construction at a third project, with a capacity of 32MW, in 2023.
The utility also aims to start construction at two other project with a combined capacity of 54MW in the first half of this year and start work at a further three facilities in the second half of the year.
This year alone, the utility aims to have 330MW of solar PV under construction in Italy, with a further 40MW in early 2025. A year ago, Iberdrola secured a €150 million (US$163 million) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to develop 400MW of PV and wind projects in Italy, for which the company said this portfolio would require an investment of €300 million.
Furthermore, ib vogt recently secured a €65 million project financing debt facility for a 93MWp solar PV plant in Ireland. The project is expected to be completed in September 2024, as covered by our sister site Solar Power Portal.