Italian power grid operator Terna has announces that it intends to spend €250-350 million by 2010 on developing solar power plants on land it owns, according to Reuters.
Terna announced this investment with its first-half results, it said it will set up a company called Sungrid that will develop 70-100MW of installed PV capacity with the EBITDA margin on sales of the operation predicted to be around 85%.
“We are aiming for a double-digit return on the investment with an IRR (internal rate of return) of 11-12 percent,” the company’s, said Flavio Cattaneo, chief executive at Terna.
Cattaneo also said that the idea was to develop the solar power plants and then sell them on; the capital gains from the sale to be reinvested in the domestic power grid and in dispatching services.
Terna expect that the Sungrid project will generate revenues of about €45-55 million per year.
The company has already discussed the project with Italy’s energy regulator and with the Industry ministry.
