A thousand direct and indirect jobs, 600 million euros of investments in Sicily and a production capacity of innovative solar panels of 3 Gigawatts per year, 15 times higher than the current one.
On these numbers, Enel Green Power has signed a non-repayable subsidized loan agreement with the European Commission for almost 118 million euros for the development of the Tango gigafactory at the 3Sun factory in Catania. The new 3 GW factory will enter full operation by July 2024, after starting with the first 400 MW of capacity in September 2023, and according to the company, “it is preparing to become the largest European factory for the production of photovoltaic modules. high-performance double-sided »helping to reduce the continent’s energy dependence on Asia.
The panels produced will be able to generate up to about 5.5 TWh of electricity from renewable sources per year which corresponds to savings of up to almost 25 million tons of CO2 in ten years and can lead to the replacement of almost 1.2 billion meters. cubes of gas per year. The CEO of the Enel group, Francesco Starace, sees for Italy “a big step forward in maintaining its technological leadership”.
“The world demand for solar photovoltaic modules is growing at an accelerating pace. It is expected – observes Starace – that Europe alone will absorb a large part of the additional demand thanks to the great competitiveness and convenience of this technology. The origin of the supplies of these important components represents a weak point in the global supply chain and we see the need to rebalance its geographical distribution which today is excessively dependent on a single source in Asia “.
“This investment will bring back 3,000 MW of production capacity per year to Europe” underlines Starace. “The Gigafactory – adds the CEO of Enel Green power, Salvatore Bernabei – will promote a concept of circular economy, through the creation of a more sustainable and resilient European supply chain, from design to new models for the reuse of components at the end of their life”. Tango in the future, for Bernabei, “can become a model for other factories of photovoltaic panels on a gigawatt scale to be developed in Europe in the coming years”.