The expansion plans for Enel Green Power are enormous. A factory power plant that will be situated in Catania, Italy, will contribute to the production of around 160MW of electricity per year. Yet, this is expected to expand to 480 MW.
However, Enel Green Power is joining forces with Sharp in creating a solar plant in the Mediterranean region. The predicted production capacity by the end of 2016 is 500 MW. Moreover, other as critical widespread solar plans are already underway.
Early this year, Enel Green Power, STMicroelectronics and Sharp engaged in an agreement to start constructing triple-junction thin-film photovoltaic solar panels in Italy. The three companies are nowadays strategic partners in respect to the upcoming photovoltaic panel factory.
This is a pioneer of its kind. It is the first time ever that green energy efforts in the solar industry experience a gigantic partnership agreement where the focus is to jointly add-value to manufacturing potentials. Enel Green Power is advanced in international marked development and has lots of expertise in the field. Secondly, Sharp has the triple-junction thin-film technology which will also be manufactured in the Sharp’s home plant in Japan, Sakai. Lastly, STMicroelectronics is highly advanced in manufacturing, having extensive knowledge in the field of microelectronics and high-tech. The venture is bringing together ideal partners where value in return is ascertained.
The manufacturing of photovoltaic panel in the Catania plant is predicted to commence in early 2011. The initial production capacity will be around 160 MW a year but this is expected to slowly augment to 480 MW a year. This will make it a very important solar manufacturer in the country and region.
An investment of 320 million euro has been injected to support the 160 MW project. The injection of funds will be split equally across the three partners. They will have equal ownership of 1 to 3, and each company is expected to inject 70 million euro. The remaining will be provided through state grants.
The target market is the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Yet, much attention will also be given to the Mediterranean region as well. Two of the partners, Sharp and Enel Green Group do already have distributive networks to construct solar farms in the region.
The agreement between Sharp and Enel Green Power to construct a solar farm, that will achieve a capacity of 500 MW of energy by the dawn of 2016, will be using photovoltaic panels from the Catania factory. These joint agreements between these three companies are facilitating other projects in terms of operation and cost efficiency.
Moreover, triple-junction thin-film photovoltaic panels are ideal for large-scale and medium sized power plants. The triple-junction thin-film photovoltaics are far more effective than ordinary silicon solar panels. Besides, the low level of the silicon present in their construction of these advanced panels makes them also less vulnerable to the volatility of the price of raw silicon.
The factory location in Catania is ideal. It has ancillary benefits as semiconductors plant and other facilities exist in the nearby vicinity. Moreover, the logistics conveniences make it easy to reach all the nearby markets.
See clip on: Enel International News
Source: PRnewswire
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