World's Largest Solar PV Farm in Italy Soon

US solar energy company SunEdison has announced final plans to build the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the world,.. in Italy.

[social_buttons]

SunEdison’s new solar PV farm will be a 72MW farm in the northern Italian province of Veneto near the town of Rovigo. It has just received final approval from the Italian government and the farm is expected to be finished and in use before the end of the year (with power generation starting in the second half of 2010).

The PV farm will pass up 60MW Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park in Olmedilla, Spain to take the world title. However, China is close on its heels with a mega-project that would make this “farm” look like a small “potted plant”.

SunEdison’s new farm “is expected to use ground mounted solar panels that are capable of turning to track the sun’s movement,” Business Green reports.

According to SunEdison, “the system will generate sufficient energy to power 17,150 homes and avoid 41,000 tons of CO2 –the equivalent of removing 8,000 cars from the road” in its first full year of operation.

SunEdison manages over 96MW of solar PV power plants in North America, but it is looking to focus its expansion on Europe now. Last year, it bought the Business Institute Solar Strategy GmbH (BISS) which is based in Germany but has additional offices in Spain, Italy and France. Through this acquisition, it now has access to over 300MW of European solar project opportunities.

Of course, if China builds the 2,000MW solar PV farm it’s got planned, this won’t be big news for long. China is expecting to break ground on that farm this summer with completion expected by 2019. Even with only 1/20^th of it complete, it will be considerably larger than SunEdison’s 72MW farm.

via SunEdison & Business Green

Related Stories:

1) Wow, China is Serious about Clean Energy!

3) Most Efficient Solar PV Plant of 2008 Won’t Hold Title for Long

Image Credit: efilpera via flickr under a CC license