Tenesol has finished work on its first turnkey solar project in Italy. The 100kW system is located on an organic farm in Ispica City, Sicily and has the potential to generate 150,000kWh of electricity per annum for the farm; all the electricity not used by the farm will be fed into the local electricity grid.

The farm is situated on 6,000m2 of protected land, and therefore in order to grow crops it must comply with the latest European standards for reducing environmental impact. As a result, farm owners Natursana decided to invest in solar technology and chose Tenesol due to the French firm’s project installation experience in the southern Mediterranean.

“PV technology is very well suited to farms and our system will have a hugely positive impact on our business,” Natursana’s owner, Sonia Calabrese, said. “It offers environmental and economic benefits. In fact, the energy it generates is equivalent to our power needs so we can be energy self-sufficient.

“Solar power’s ability to reduce a company’s reliance on traditional energy sources is a great incentive to businesses to invest in renewable energy, particularly during a time of economic uncertainty. We chose to work with Tenesol because it is a multinational company with much experience and offers direct relationships with people who have a deep-seated knowledge of the solar industry in our region.”

Building work on the system got underway in November 2010 and it took Tenesol one month to install the 432 modules; all the modules were produced at Tenesol’s 85MW Toulouse manufacturing facility.

“This is a milestone project for us and marks our continued expansion in one of the world’s fastest growing solar markets,” said Claude Escala, Tenesol’s European Director. “We have provided turnkey PV systems to markets across the globe for 27 years. Our experience and knowledge mean we can deliver effective and reliable systems to exact customer requirements. As our team in Italy grows, I look forward to building on this progress and delivering our next installation in Italy.”