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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Italy’s High Minister Giorgia Meloni holds her finish-of-yr information conference in Rome, Italy, December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo
ROME (Reuters) – Italy will invest in Enel (BIT:)’s photovoltaic panel factory in Sicily, supporting its device to boost production and turn into Europe’s main dispute for solar panels, High Minister Giorgia Meloni mentioned on Saturday.
“There are 90 million euros ($97 million) for this mission from the Nationwide Restoration and Resilience Thought (NRRP)… which is in a position to allow essentially the most popular factory to make stronger itself and for a extra contemporary production line to be established,” Meloni mentioned on the finish of her consult with to the 3Sun plant, in the metropolis of Catania.
“Our bet is for Catania to turn into one of crucial hubs in solar panel production,” she added.
The factory’s existing production skill of roughly 200 megawatts (MW) a yr is dispute to prolong to 3 gigawatts (GW) by the finish of this yr, with a six month prolong when compared with what was once initially announced by Enel in 2022.
Meloni mentioned the aim was once to rating 700 contemporary jobs by the finish of 2024, and a extra 1,000 indirectly, in corporations working with the 3Sun plant.
The mission to boost the factory’s skill comes because the European Union is seeking to dawdle up the switch to renewables and finish its dependence on fuel imported from Russia.
Meloni, who took price in October 2022, has pledged to boost renewables in the south to are attempting to kind out decades of below-pattern.
“We desire and we need to be aggressive in this sector when compared to Asian gamers,” Meloni mentioned on Saturday.
In January Enel secured a 560 million euro financial bundle from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a neighborhood of Italian banks, led by UniCredit, to prolong the dispute.
Additional funds for the plant will strategy from the European Union’s innovation fund for inexperienced expertise initiatives.
The energy neighborhood is furthermore in talks with doable investors over presumably selling up to 50% in the factory, sources bear mentioned.
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