Eni New Energy to build Italy's first floating solar plant

Eni New Energy SpA, a subsidiary of Italian oil group Eni, has announced it will build a 14 MW floating solar plant in Brindisi, in Apulia, southern Italy. The project is the first of its kind to be planned in Italy.

Documents published by the local government in Apulia have shown that the project will cost around €14.7-million and will be built on an artificial water basin covering an area of 150,000 m² of the water surface.

Eni has said that once final approval from local authorities is secured, the project should take approximately seven months to complete. 

Despite being Italy's first floating photovoltaic (PV) project, there is strong potential for similar projects in the future, in particular when used in combination with hydropower. A recent report from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore found that total global floating solar capacity had reached around 1.3 GW at the end of 2018. The study's authors argued that floating PV could have the potential to become a "third-pillar" of the industry after ground-mounted and rooftop solar applications.

The largest floating PV project in Europe to date is a 48 MW installation near Emmen, the Netherlands being developed by Groenleven. The country also has the largest number of floating projects in Europe.

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