Enel plans €300 million solar investment

London, 30 August: Enel has announced plans to install 1,200 photovoltaic solar panels across Italy, as part of a €300 million ($408 million) investment in solar power.

The Italian power company will install the panels on top of its transformer stations. It has already installed panels on 14 of these stations, and another seven will be up and running by early September. When the installations are completed in 2010, the panels will have a combined capacity of 24MW.

In addition, Enel is in the middle of constructing a 6MW solar installation covering 10 hectares of land near the site of a nuclear power plant that was begun but never completed at Montalto di Castro.

Another 5MW of capacity will come from the Archimedes project – a thermodynamic solar plant at Oriolo Gargallo in Siracusa, Sicily – bringing the total new capacity expected to go online by 2010 to 35MW.

Overall, Enel says the €300 million investment will produce enough renewable electricity to power a town of 20,000 people and prevent 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

The investment is part of a previously-announced plan to invest €4.1 billion to help shift Enel's portfolio away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. The investment is to be completed between 2006 and 2010/11.

Enel already operates a 3MW solar power plant in Salerno, which went online in 1993. It also says it has installed "more than a third" of all the solar panels in Italy, partly through a chain of Enel Si shops where individuals can purchase the panels and get advice on permits, maintenance and financing.