RWE has started the construction of its first solar plant in Italy. Bosco, an 8.3 megawatt (MWac) ground-mounted solar plant, will be installed in Partinico Municipality near Palermo, Sicily. On a 16-hectare site, around 15,000 bifacial modules1 will have the capacity to generate enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of 7,000 Italian homes. Commissioning is planned for the end of the year.
Katja Wünschel, CEO RWE Renewables Europe & Australia: “Bosco is RWE’s first solar plant under construction in Italy. What makes it special is the exceptionally short time it took from the start of development to construction. Thanks to the implementation of a new accelerated permitting process in Italy, we were able to reach Ready to Build in less than 18 months. This is a great achievement and we look forward to realising our next projects in Italy, one of our key markets.”
RWE Renewables Italia – strong presence in Italian market for renewables
RWE, a world leader in renewables, takes an integrated project approach that incorporates the development, construction and operation as well as marketing of wind farms and solar plants. RWE is a key player in the Italian renewables market. The company draws on its extensive experience to drive forward its business in Italy, and currently operates 15 onshore wind farms with an installed capacity of approximately 500 MW in the country. With its onshore fleet, RWE supplies around 400,000 Italian households with green electricity every year. The company is currently constructing the 54-MW San Severo wind farm and is about to start building the Mondonuovo wind farm (more than 50 MW), both in the Apulia region.
1Bifacial solar cells consist of a double-sided module which allows solar irradiance to be absorbed from the rear as well as from the front side of the module. A second glass pane on the rear side of the module ensures that refracted light is captured from the rear solar cells, thus increasing production and efficiency at the solar plant.
Pictures of selected RWE solar plants (credit: RWE) are available at the RWE Media Centre