RWE Innogy continues to expand wind energy operations in Italy

The 13 wind turbines supplied by Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas have a total capacity of 26 megawatts thus allowing the generation of 55 million kilowatt hours of environmentally friendly electricity every year. Convert these figures and this volume is sufficient to supply over 18,000 households with their annual electricity needs.

The Ururi wind farm is a further wind power project which RWE Innogy has developed and established in cooperation with its strategic partner in Italy – FRI-EL Green Power S.p.A..

“Italy offers great potential for the development of renewables. We have managed to enter the market in cooperation with our joint venture partner and we aim to continue increasing our generating capacity in Italy over the coming years. We are concentrating in particular on wind and biomass as energy sources”, explains Professor Fritz Vahrenholt, chairman of the board of directors at RWE Innogy GmbH.

In addition to the Ururi wind farm RWE Innogy also commissioned – in cooperation with FRI-EL Green Power – the San Basilio wind power plant on Sardinia this summer. This wind farm has an installed capacity of approximately 25 megawatts. Construction on another wind farm – Anzi – began in the Basilicata region in November.

The eight wind turbines, each with a capacity of two megawatts, should be ready for commissioning by mid-2011. Moreover the companies are building the first biomass power plant on Sicily. With a capacity of 18.7 megawatts, the plant is scheduled for grid connection by the end of 2012.

RWE Innogy entered partnership through its national holding RWE Innogy Italia S.p.A. with the Italian developer and operator of renewable energy power plants, FRI-EL Green Power S.p.A., in Bozen in 2008. The aim of the joint venture is the development, construction and operation of wind energy and biomass power plants in Italy.

By the end of 2009 4.8 gigawatts of wind power had been installed in Italy. The Italian government aims to increase the installed capacity to eight gigawatts by 2020. Electricity generation using renewables is supported in Italy by a system of “green certificates”. Electricity providers are obliged to offer a certain percentage of renewables-based electricity. By purchasing the relevant certificates they can however exempt themselves from this requirement.

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