ENEL GREEN POWER HARNESSES THE SUN FOR THE ITALIAN GRID

With Adrano in Sicily, Sesto Campano in Molise and San Gillio in Piedmont, the renewable energy company adds over 14 MW of photovoltaic power to its asset portfolio. From today onwards, this will feed 21 million kWh of green energy into the grid.

Rome, August 5th, 2011 – Three new Enel Green Power photovoltaic plants are entering service today. The Adrano plant, in the Province of Catania, Sicily, the largest of them, has an installed capacity of 9 MW. The plant is located on the historic site on which Enel created the world’s first concentrated solar power plant in 1981. The other two are the 4.8 MW San Gillio photovoltaic plant, in the municipality of the same name in the Province of Torino, and the 500 kW plant in Sesto Campano, in the Region of Molise, located in the upper Cesima basin of the Presenzano hydro plant. 

Thanks to a total installed capacity of 14.3 MW, the three solar plants will generate 21 million kWh a year, enough to meet the annual energy needs of nearly 7,800 households, thus avoiding the emission of some 15,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere per year.
 
“Adrano was the site of Enel’s first foray into the field of solar energy when, at the time, the very idea seemed just like a pipe dream, so it is only fitting that Adrano will now be generating energy from the sun to meet the daily needs of all Italians.” Commented Francesco Starace, Enel Green Power CEO. “Enel Green Power will forge ahead, pushing technology boundaries even further, with the aim to enhance availability of increasingly competitive energy from renewable sources.”

Enel Green Power keeps growing in the photovoltaic sector. The company concluded 2010 and heralded in the current year with the opening of major new plant and sites in Italy. These include the addition to the grid of the 5 MW Serragiumenta plant, in the Province of Cosenza, the first result of the ESSE equal joint venture with Sharp, the 3 MW Deruta  plant in the Province of Perugia, the Taranto plant with over 3MW, installed on the roofs of the Marcegaglia Group factories, and the 2.5 MW Strambino plant, in the Province of Torino. Enel Green Power has also started work on the Serre Persano site, in the Province of Salerno, to double its installed capacity to 6.6 MW from today’s 3.3 MW and work is nearly complete on the CIS–Interporto Campano roof-top plant in Nola (Province of Napoli) which, with its 25 MW of installed capacity, using thin film technology, will be the largest roof-top photovoltaic plant in Europe.