OPDE ITALY Connects 17 MW in Italy in 2010 and Will Have Constructed 200 MW by 2012

West Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) January 21, 2011

The Italian company OPDE ITALY – part of the Spanish GRUPO OPDE and specialized in the promotion of photovoltaic solar farms in Italy- has connected a total of eleven photovoltaic solar farms in Italy in 2010, totalling 17 MW of power and in which an investment of 85 million Euros has been carried out. This amount will see the addition of another solar farm shortly, presently under construction, in Piedmont (Cuneo), of 5.2 MW of power and which will be connected to the grid during the first quarter of this year.

Of the 11 farms constructed and connected by OPDE in 2010, eight are located in the region of Puglia, to the south of Italy, concretely in the municipalities of Ruatella, Ginosa, San Nicandro, Lucera and Mottola. As a whole, they total 7.8 MW power and have been constructed using MECASOLAR fixed structures. The other three farms connected in 2010 are located in the region of Piedmont, in the localities of Bosco Marengo (6.5 MW), Quattordio (1.4 MW) and Casale Monferrato (1.2 MW). These three farms incorporate MECASOLAR 1-axis solar trackers. These can be added to the 5.2 MW of the farm in Fossano in the region of Cuneo, mentioned previously, and that will be connected in this first quarter of 2011.

According to OPDE management, the company has more than 58 MW on their books with unique authorization in diverse zones of the region of Piedmont such as Alessandria, Cuneo and Turin, ready to initiate the construction in the first semester of 2011. OPDE ITALY considers that they will be able to begin construction of 22 MW in this first quarter, of the 58 MW that it has on its books.

This would add to a total of 80.4 MW of constructed accumulated power in Italy by the end of 2011 and an investment, during the present year, of more than 316 million Euros in solar farms, creating a total of 375 direct and indirect jobs, especially in the region of Piedmont.

OPDE ITALY, forms alongside MECASOLAR ITALY and PROINSO ITALY, the Italian branches of the Spanish Grupo OPDE. In the case of MECASOLAR ITALY, specialized in the manufacture of solar trackers and fixed structures, the company has an assembly factory in Turin-ITALY (as well as the ones they already have in Greece, the USA, Canada and Spain), facilities in which OPDE ITALY is also located. Besides the trackers for the farms promoted by OPDE, MECASOLAR has a portfolio of external orders of 42 MW confirmed in the Italian market, enabling their sales to surpass the 100 MW mark in Italy in 2011. From this factory located in Turin the maintenance will be conducted for all the trackers that MECASOLAR supplies in Italy and which are expected to surpasses 100 MW at the end of 2011.

PROINSO ITALY accounted in 2010 for 50% of the total sales of PROINSO on an international level. It distributed 456 MW modules and inverters worldwide, obtaining 165 million Euros last year, in Italy alone, of the more than 320 million Euros that the international branches of PROINSO as part of the GRUPO OPDE sold to the world-wide market.

All the activities and projects mentioned above mean that the OPDE Group will expect to have built by the end of the period 2011-2012 solar photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of 200 MW, this amount being the total forecast to be installed by the end of 2012. Therefore ending the 2012 with an accumulated total investment of 850 million Euros.

In order to reach this number, the company will develop a double strategy. On the one hand, reinforce its license development team in the offices of OPDE ITALY (Turin) and, on the other, it has initiated a process of acquisition of licenses in diverse areas of Italy. This process is developed by means of the agreement with engineering companies that are licensing projects and, in addition, by means of the acquisition from local promoters of photovoltaic projects. At present, it has more than 40 MW under study in several zones and hopes to receive new projects throughout the first quarter of 2011.

International presence

At the end of 2010, the accumulated total power in the farms constructed and promoted by OPDE - without counting the turnkey projects for third parties, reached 101 MW of power. During 2011 the company will carry out the construction of photovoltaic solar farms in the United States (Sacramento, Inyokern), Italy and Spain.

Commitment to Italy

Some of the farms built and promoted in 2010 by OPDE in Italy are the result of the agreement between Grupo OPDE and the ex-President of the Regione Piemonte, Mercedes Bresso in Turin in October 2009, with the local authorities and those from Navarra, such as the Minister for Innovation of the Regional Government. The agreement contemplated the construction of a total of 17 solar facilities in the region of Piedmont with a total of 75 MW of installed power, figures that will be reached by the end of 2011 and will be surpassed at the end of 2012.

Asides from the mentioned agreement and the construction of new farms, Grupo OPDE´s commitment in Piedmont has also materialised with the start-up of a MECASOLAR assembly and maintenance factory of 5,000 m2 in Turin, the PROINSO ITALY office in Milan and the constitution, in 2009, of the company OPDE ITALY, with headquarters in Turin.

Similarly, in the mentioned region, OPDE ITALY collaborates actively in the research project REALYSER, coordinated by the Turin Polytechnic, with the aim of developing an alkaline electrolyser, able to efficiently handle a power level superior to 5 KW in a single battery configuration. On the other hand, in terms of corporative social responsibility, the company has sponsored during 2009 and 2010 the Brixia Leonessa Waterpolo team from Brescia and this year will sponsor 14 teams and more than 311 young people between 5 and 18 years old of the Novese Sports Club, who are celebrating their 90th aniversary, in the province of Alessandria (Piedmont). /

http://www.opde.net
http://www.opdegroup.com

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