Sicily Chosen for Biomass and Solar Projects

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The rollout of renewable energy projects on the Italian island of Sicily is accelerating, as energy companies announced new biomass and solar power plant projects for the island this week.

The Italian division of RWE Innogy (Essen, Germany), the renewables arm of German power giant RWE (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen), has signed an agreement to build an 18.7-megawatt (MW) biomass cogeneration plant at Enna, in the centre of Sicily. This will be Sicily's first biomass plant and the first biomass plant built in Italy by RWE.

RWE Innogy Italia, which is 50% owned by Fri-El Green Power (Bolzano, Italy), hopes to start construction on the plant before the end of the year. Commissioning is planned for late 2012. The facility, which will have a power generation output of 128 gigawatt-hours (GWh) and will power approximately 30,000 homes annually, will cost 61 million euros ($85 million) to construct.

Stephan Lohr, the CEO of RWE Innogy Cogen GmbH, said, "The integrated supply concept provides for the use of local biomass for decentralised energy production and a close cooperation with the Italian partners. Enna is the ideal location for this."

RWE has reported that long-term agreements are now in place for the supply of wood from regional eucalyptus tree plantations, which cover more than 20,000 hectares.

Fritz Vahrenholt, the CEO of RWE Innogy, said: "Europe will not achieve its climate targets without biomass. This is why RWE Innogy pursues an integrated biomass strategy across the entire value chain, ranging from plantations to pelletising of fresh wood onto the construction and operation of the cogeneration plants. In Germany we are already among the leaders in this sector. Our first plant in Italy is an important step for the continued internationalisation of our biomass business."

In addition to the biomass plant, global power and automation technology company ABB Limited (NYSE:ABB) (Zurich, Switzerland) has secured orders worth 19.5 million euros ($27 million) to supply four solar plants in Sicily with a combined generation capacity of 17 MW.

The deal has been struck with Gestamp Solar, the solar photovoltaic subsidiary of international company Gestamp Renewables (Madrid, Spain). The main plant (7.7 MW) will be erected in Duccotto, along with plants at Francofonte (2.3 MW), Monreale (3.3 MW) and Sapeu (3.8 MW). The plants will generate about 27 GWh of renewable electricity per year and offset CO2 emissions by approximately 14,000 tons annually. A fast-track scheme is in place, and according to ABB, the projects will be completed before the end of the year.

The turnkey project involves the design, engineering, supply and commissioning of the power plants, as well as the medium-voltage distribution link that will connect the plants to the grid.

"Solar power is making an increasing contribution to the power generation mix and helping to lower environmental impact," said Franz-Josef Mengede, the head of ABB's global Power Generation business, a part of the Power Systems division. "ABB has a wide portfolio of technologies for the solar power industry and a growing installed base."

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the wind energy, geothermal, hydroelectric, landfill gas-to-energy and utility-scale solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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