Wednesday 21 April 2010

SunEdison to build Europe's biggest solar plant

A US company is to build Europe's largest solar power plant in north-east Italy.

SunEdison will develop a photovoltaic facility near the town of Rovigo, covering the size of 120 football pitches.

SunEdison supplied more kilowatt hours of energy than any other solar provider in the US last year. SunEdison president Carlos Domenech said the company is "focused on enabling the growth of solar markets through strong capabilities in project finance, engineering, low-cost procurement and operations and maintenance services".

Figures suggest the plant would be able to provide power to more than 17,000 homes, reducing 41,000 tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. In simpler terms, it would be like taking 8,000 cars off the roads.

The plant, which will create 350 jobs, will have a capacity of 72 MW and cover over nine million square feet, which significantly outweighs Europe's current largest solar power plant in Olmedilla, Spain, that has a capacity of 60 MW.

Veneto government official Renzo Marangon said: "Veneto is taking decisive action to advance the use of clean, renewable energy resources."