The largest solar farm in Italy has recently been completed. The Montalto di Castro (Viterbo) project boasts 6 MW of installed solar panel capacity.
The Montalto di Castro solar farm covers an area of nearly 10 hectares and is able to generate over 7 million kWh per year, sufficient to meet the power requirements of 2,700 households.
The electricity generated at Montalto will avoid the emission of nearly 5,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The plant was designed and constructed by Enel.si a subsidiary of Enel Green Power. The Montalto plant joins Enel’s 3.3 MW plant in Serre Persano (Salerno). The Serre Persano solar power station was Italy’s first large-scale photovoltaic plant, brought online in 1993 and still fully operational.
Enel.si has overseen the installation of over 80 MW of solar farms for industry, utilities and households in Italy.
The modules used for the power station were primarily Sharp solar panels.
Sharp Corporation and Enel established a joint venture earlier this year to operate as an independent power producer and to develop a number of solar farms with a total capacity of 189 MW by the end of 2012. The initial phase of development will put in place a production system having an annual capacity of 480 MW, with the aim of starting operations around the middle of 2010.
