Eni completes solar project on chemical industry site

Italian oil and gas giant Eni has completed a 31 MW solar plant on one of its chemical industry sites in Sardinia.

The state-controlled company today announced it has completed work on 60ha of its 1,200ha property in the Porto Torres site of national interest at Sassari.

In a press release issued to announce completion of the project, Eni said the PV facility was the largest project yet in its Progetto Italia program, launched in 2016 to reuse the fossil fuel company’s industrial sites as bases for renewable energy installations.

The 31 MW project – Eni’s second Progetto Italia solar array on the island of Sardinia – is expected to generate 50 GWh of clean electricity per year with around 70% of its output powering operations at Eni’s chemical subsidiary Versalis, formerly Polimeri Europa.

Eni said its Progetto Italia initiative is in line with “the goals of the Italian National Integrated Plan for Energy and Climate” and takes the oil company’s solar portfolio to 80 MW of installed capacity across 13 PV plants in five regions of the nation.

The company added, the latest solar project includes environmental and energy compensation works, such as providing lighting for the village of Cala d’Oliva on the island of Asinara.