Silfab establishes new Italian solar photovoltaic plants

2 December 2009

Italian solar manufacturer Silfab has established a new solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Southern Italy, with four more due to be completed before the end of the year.

The company is aiming to build a broad network of solar farms with an overall capacity exceeding 60MW, while working at a new international project to develop a fully integrated photovoltaic supply chain, starting from solar-grade polysilicon.

The new farms are completely funded by Silfab, with a total investment exceeding €20m, and have a capacity of 1MW each. By the end of 2009, the company is slated to complete four additional solar plants in the Apulia province of Bari for an overall investment of almost €40m.
While the original project of establishing a polysilicon manufacturing plant in Borgofranco d’Ivrea, Turin is losing ground, Silfab is currently evaluating new opportunities overseas to develop a PV value chain based on a new operating model. The company is aiming is to build the first PV manufacturing plant completely powered by hydroelectric energy to create the entire photovoltaic supply chain of products and systems, from polysilicon to modules. Should this project succeed, Silfab would become the first photovoltaic company in the world operating exclusively with a ‘green-to-green’ model, with each kWh of hydroelectric power would be transformed in 15kWh of solar energy generated by Silfab’s PV modules during their life cycle.

By the end of 2010 Silfab also plans to install a new set of 1-5MW solar farms across Europe. According to the company, in the current volatile market economy, nominal power is typically the benchmark that defines the productivity of a photovoltaic plant. In reality, the profitability of PV plants can be effectively appreciated only by considering the overall output capacity during the entire life cycle, that is, productivity lies in average cost per kWh rather than mere nominal power. In fact, following this very logic, the Italian government energy incentives plan funds the long-term energy output of each new system installed during its first 20 years of activity.

Next year, the company intends to open new solar farms in the Southern-Central regions of Italy, thus achieving a total capacity of 60MW. The company said that its future plans also include the installation of power plants in developing countries.

Silfab founding partners include SAS, an international manufacturer of solar wafers, and Pan Asia Solar, a private investment firm engaged in the production of PV cells. Silfab currently currently has a market capitalisation of €84m and is set to launch a new capital increase in the next few months to finance the expansion of its two primary businesses.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: photovoltaic, solar

This story was published on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 11:38 am and is filed under Europe, companies, solar. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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