Palermo, 30 January 2023 – Aquila Clean Energy, a clean energy company with a focus on wind power and photovoltaics, is investing in Sicily. Aquila Clean Energy is the renewable energy platform of Aquila Capital, a group headquartered in Hamburg, which develops, builds and operates clean energy plants using solar, wind, hydroelectric and electricity storage technologies.

On the Mediterranean’s largest island, which boasts a record irradiation index in Southern Europe, Aquila Clean Energy is debuting with a portfolio of seven projects, all designed to exploit the advantages of solar energy. The plants – six agrivoltaic and one standard photovoltaic – are almost all under development and are distributed between the provinces of Palermo, Trapani, Catania and Enna.

Each will produce renewable energy from the sun. In agrivoltaic systems, solar panels are spaced out or raised above the ground, so as not to completely occupy the available land and leave space for farming and animal husbandry. This is a technology that Aquila Capital favours because it makes it possible to reconcile the needs of renewable energy production and agricultural activity. It was a precise field choice to allocate six out of the seven Sicilian projects to agrivoltaics and only one to small-scale, standard photovoltaics.

“For Aquila Clean Energy, Sicily represents a strategic territory, not only at a national level, but also at a European one” comments Alberto Arcioli, Head of Development for Aquila Clean Energy in Italy. “The island’s geographic position means that net production is twice as high as, for example, the United Kingdom, for the same installed power. In addition, our projects integrate perfectly with the land without taking land away from agriculture, which is greatly enhanced thanks to our collaboration with expert agronomists who identify the plants and typical features that are best suited to the environment”.

The total capacity of the seven Sicilian projects is around 570 MW, and the investment involved exceeds €0.5 billion.

To facilitate the development of projects in Sicily, Aquila Clean Energy has partnered with highly qualified companies, drawing on its many years of experience in building sustainable infrastructure. The company wants to contribute to the global energy transition to change the world for the better. In the places where it invests to achieve its decarbonisation objective, it aims to initiate dialogues with local institutions to harmonise projects with the needs of the territory, including ad hoc measures that can mitigate the impact of works or problems not necessarily directly related to the plants.

Of the seven projects being developed by Aquila Clean Energy in Sicily, two are at a very advanced stage and the company expects to start construction later this year.

Arcioli concludes: “We have noted the positive approach of the new regional government, which is focusing heavily on energy issues and the simplification of administrative processes. We hope that this will also contribute to turning Sicily into a future energy hub”.

About Aquila Clean Energy

Aquila Clean Energy EMEA is Aquila Group´s clean energy platform in Europe. Aquila Clean Energy is a renewable asset investor, developer and independent power producer with a focus on three technologies: solar PV, wind and battery storage. Currently, Aquila Clean Energy manages a portfolio with a total capacity of more than 10.3 GW.

With a local approach and through local teams of experts, Aquila Clean Energy initiates, develops, realises and operates what it identifies as essential assets along the entire value chain and over the lifetimes of the assets. Aquila Clean Energy has built a permanent presence in seven countries with over 200 employees, believing that local, on-site management teams are key to the company’s operations.

About Aquila Group

Aquila Group is an investment and asset development company focused on generating and managing essential assets on behalf of its clients. Currently, Aquila Group manages assets worth EUR 14.7 billion on behalf of institutional investors worldwide. The company has been carbon neutral since 2006 and aims to become carbon negative.

Further information: https://www.aquila-clean-energy.com/