Engie has inaugurated the first mega agrivoltaic park which is the largest in Italy to combine renewable energy production and agricultural crops. The energy is fed into the national grid and 80% will feed Amazon's activities in Italy.
The plant is located in Mazara del Vallo (Trapani) on 115 hectares and is the first of the two renewable energy plants announced by the companies. The second in Paternò (Catania) will start producing by 2023. In total, both will have a maximum production capacity of 104 MW and will cut over 62,000 tons of CO2 per year.
The Mazara del Vallo plant, explains Engie, is equipped with a "latest generation technology: bifacial solar panels mounted on uniaxial trackers allow to capture both direct and reflected light from the surrounding land, thus facilitating energy production. The use of bifacial solar panels and trackers minimizes the area needed for the photovoltaic system and maximizes the effectiveness for the agricultural destination." "It will be possible to guarantee the preservation of the rural landscape and biodiversity, and ensure a positive impact also for the local agricultural realities involved in the management of crops" adds the energy group French, the fourth largest in the world.
Engie has among its main strategic challenges the production of energy from renewable sources. In Sicily it has 5 plants in operation (wind farms in Salemi/Trapani and Elimi, photovoltaic plants in Lembisi and Santa Chiara and the agrivoltaic plant in Mazara del Vallo) powered by renewable sources for about 174 MW of installed power and is building new projects for a further 68 MW: a 38 Mw Peak (33 Mw Ac) agrivoltaic plant in Paternò and the 30 Mw Rampingallo wind farm).
Associated with the Trapani Salemi wind farm is a "Fast Reserve Unit" with a capacity of 12.5 MW. It is a storage system created to support Terna in ensuring the stability of the electricity grid. Worldwide, the Engie Group has an installed green energy capacity of 38 GW, with the aim of reaching 80 GW by 2030.
"The transition is an opportunity, companies have understood it and institutions must be at their side in accompanying this ecological transition" but "the government has many projects but we need gradualness because things happen that require us to slow down" said Vania Gava, Deputy Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, on the occasion of the inauguration of the largest agrivoltaic park in Italy thanks to the collaboration between Engie and Amazon.
"I am very honored - she added - to inaugurate the fruit of this collaboration between two large and beautiful companies that wanted to invest in this territory and in renewables". Plants like that of Engie, he observed "are an opportunity for everyone" also for "new training, new jobs and different skills: old jobs are left but they are absorbed by green jobs" and therefore "new jobs and skills are created, protecting the environment, the economy and the territories".
