SunEdison Announce Largest PV Plant For Europe
SunEdison to build Europe's largest solar power plant in Italy
SunEdison,a division of MEMC Electronic Materials, has received final approval from theItalian government to develop and construct a 72 Megawatt (MW) photovoltaicsolar power plant in Northeastern Italy, near the town of Rovigo. When completed, this is expected tobe the largest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant in Europe.Power generation will begin in the second half of 2010 with final completionexpected by year end. In the first full year of operation, the system willgenerate sufficient energy to power 17,150 homes and avoid 41,000 tons of CO2--the equivalent of removing 8,000 cars from the road.
SunEdisonwill jointly develop the project with financing partner Banco Santander.Additional financial partners are expected to join the project for finalownership.
"SunEdisonis focused on enabling the growth of global solar markets through strongcapabilities in project finance, engineering, low-cost procurement andoperations and maintenance services," commented Carlos Domenech,President of SunEdison.
"Veneto is taking decisive action to advance the use ofclean, renewable energy sources," said Renzo Marangon,government official of the Venetoregion. "At the same time, this project is expected to create over 350local construction jobs and build expertise in advanced energy technologies. Weexpect Rovigoto serve as a European model for large-scale, alternative-energyprojects."
"Acritical element of our approach is working closely with the rightpartners," added Pancho Perez, General Manager for Europe and MENA region at SunEdison, "includingdevelopers, suppliers and contractors. For the Rovigo project, we selected Isolux Corsan,a large-scale infrastructure construction company with a strong track record inutility-scale solar plants."
"Weare pleased to be selected by SunEdison to construct the largest PV solar plantin Europe. We are looking forward to extendingthis partnership beyond Italy,"said Luis Delso, President of Isolux Corsan.
At72 megawatts, this solar-power plant will be the largest in Europe.Currently, the largest facility is a 60MW solar farm in Olmedilla,Spain, followed by a 50 MWin Strasskirchen, Germany , built by MEMC through ajoint venture agreement.
