- Enel Green Power、 The opening ceremony was held by 3Sun, a joint venture invested by Sharp and EFLD, with an estimated initial capacity of 160MW;
The opening ceremony was attended by Raffaele Lombardo, the president of the Sicily Region, Giusepe Castiglione, the president of the Italian Province of Catania, Raffaele Stancanelli, the mayor of Catania and the management of the three parties;
The new plant is located in Catania and its products will be sold to the most promising solar markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
July 14, 2011 - The opening ceremony of the Joint Venture 3Sun Photovoltaic Panel Manufacturing Plant of Enel Green Power, Sharp and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) in Catania, Italy. The Inauguration Ceremony was attended by Raffaele Lombardo, President of the District Assembly of Sicily, Gieppe Castiglione, Chairman of the Provincial Assembly of Catania, and Raffaele Stancanelli, Mayor of Catania.
In addition to government representatives, the opening ceremony was attended by Paolo Andrea Colombo, Chairman of Enel and Flavio Conti, Chief Executive Officer of Sharp, Katsuaki Machida, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Italian and French Semiconductor, Eduardo Steel and Chief Executive Officer of Italian and French Semiconductor, Carol Bozo. Enel Green Power CEO Francesco Starace, Sharp Director Representative and Executive VP Toshige Hamano, 3Sun President and CEO Andrea Cuand CEO Mauro Curial. The plant will produce integrated multi-junction thin film PV cells and modules.
This is the largest solar power plant in Italy and one of the largest solar power plants in Europe. It has 280 employees at the initial stage, and the expected initial capacity is 160MW, which will be increased to 480MW in the next few years. The capital for the construction of the plant comes from three channels: the self-raised funds of the three joint ventures, the allocation of CIPE and the project financing provided by Banca IMI, Centrobanca and Unic; Of these, the Italian Joint Economic Planning Commission has allocated 49 million euros.
Upon the signing of the agreement in August 2010, each joint venture party contributed one third of the equity, in cash or in kind, and each contributed 70 million euros in cash. Each joint venture inputs its own unique expertise and production skills to the new company: Enel Green Power's extensive experience in the development and operation of the international renewable energy market, the expertise of its subsidiary Enelsi in selling solar PV panels in Italy and in China, Sharp's unique multi-junction thin film cell technology (which has been put into production in the adaptive Sharp plant in Japan), Sharp and Enel Green Power's sales channels, as well as the special manufacturing technologies and trained professionals of Italian and French semiconductors in high-tech fields such as microelectronics.
Energy Green Power and Sharp also set up another joint venture company ESSE (Energy Green Power&Share Solar Energy) to meet the demands of the European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) solar market through the more widely developed projects and the sales network of subsidiaries' sales channels in Europe. Through the development, construction and operation of the PV system manufactured by the joint venture, it is estimated that the total power generation as of 2016 will exceed 500MW. ESSE will also build a 1MW solar power plant on the roof of the joint venture using the solar panels produced by the joint venture.
Enel.si, a subsidiary of Enel Green Power, will undertake the PV system installation business in the retail market and sell the PV panels through a distribution network of more than 570 home installation companies across Italy.
