Finnish investor Korkia and solar developer Global Consulting Energy have formed a development company to develop a 1GW solar PV portfolio in Italy.
The newly-formed partnership will focus on both greenfield and brownfield solar PV development, including the development of agrivoltaics (agriPV) projects. The first projects are expected to reach ready-to-build (RTB) stage by the end of 2024.
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AgriPV interest in Italy has been ever-growing in the past few years with the government financing over 1GW of agriPV projects in the country with an investment of €1.7 billion (US$1.86 billion). Earlier this year, solar developer Lightsource bp sold a 294MW PV portfolio in Italy, which included agriPV projects, while solar developer Cero Generation began operations at a 70MW agriPV project in the central region of Lazio last November.
Michael Sandberg, country manager at Korkia, said: “We are particularly excited about the planned agriPV projects, which are Korkia’s first. As a key producer of food, Italy is at the forefront of the agriPV trend in Europe, and it has been estimated that around 1GW of agriPV capacity will be installed by 2026.”
After nearly a decade of adding less than 1GW of solar capacity annually, Italy has accelerated its growth with 5.2GW of new capacity in 2023, more than doubling the capacity installed in the previous year. This brings the country’s total installed solar capacity to over 30GW, as it aims to reach its target of installing 80GW of capacity by 2030, enshrined in its updated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
PV Tech publisher Solar Media will be organising the 12th annual edition of Large Scale Solar Europe in Lisbon, Portugal, 26-27 March. The event will explore the solar manufacturing future in Europe, panel on several markets including Italy, Ireland and Czechia as well as permitting and planning bottlenecks among others. More information, including how to attend, can be read here. |