Polish PV developer R.Power aims to develop 1GW of solar projects in Italy within the next 12 months. The Warsaw-based company said it had signed agreements with Italian landowners for 100MW of photovoltaic power plants in the past month and saw the country as a key growth market moving forward.

Over the next 12 months, our portfolio of projects under development is expected to reach 1GWp, said Jakub Charaszkiewicz, R.Power's head of development in Italy. We want to invest in different projects, both geographically and in terms of project size and type. These will include farms and agricultural PV projects on industrial land.

In January 2022, Italy allocated 975MW of solar PV and wind capacity in its seventh renewable energy auction, with R.Power as the winning bidder. "We have just built our first power plant to win an auction in early 2022, and it is because of the PV auction system and the growing PPAs that we see huge market potential," Charaszkiewicz said.

According to its National Energy Development Plan, Italy aims to achieve 50GW of solar power by 2030. It introduced laws to simplify licensing in certain agricultural areas and brought environmental licensing of large-scale PV projects under the purview of local authorities, which it hopes will speed up project development. The changes introduced will undoubtedly develop the Italian PV industry fundamentally and attract new investors. Keywords: engineering news, overseas news

Italy was once one of Europe's leading PV markets, and its early growth was driven by its high irradiation levels and the launch of several government-backed programs. But changes in policy support have caused it to lag other European markets.Editor/XingWentao