Polish developer R Power Group is planning to have over 1GW of solar projects developed in Italy within a year.
The company said that in the past month alone, the company signed agreements with landowners for PV farms of more than 100MW.
R Power Group development lead in Italy Jakub Charaszkiewicz said: “R Power has been present on the Italian market for several years, we are just building our first power plants that won the auctions at the beginning of 2022 and we see great market potential precisely thanks to the PV auction system as well as the growing area of PPAs.
“Over the next 12 months, our portfolio of projects under development is expected to reach 1GW.
“We want to invest in diverse projects – both geographically and in terms of project size and type.
“These will include both farms on industrial land and agrovoltaics projects.”
R Power Group said Italy is one of the more promising markets for the PV sector, not only because of the favourable climatic conditions but also because of the government’s ambitions.
The National Energy Development Plan aims to increase solar power to 50GW by 2030.
The energy decree passed at the end of April, which includes certain agricultural areas in a simplified permitting procedure and brings the issuing of environmental permits for large PV projects under the remit of local authorities, is also undoubtedly a major facilitator for project development.
This allows the whole process to take place much less time than before, R Power said.
Charaszkiewicz said: “The changes introduced will undoubtedly radically develop the PV sector in Italy and attract new investors.
“However, reaching 50GW of capacity in 2030 will be a major challenge for the market, requiring cooperation between all stakeholders.
“As an entity with experience and assets in many markets, we believe that we can effectively support the green transformation of the energy system in Italy.”