Italy-based Enel Green Power (EGP) has started construction of 254MW Ituverava solar power plant in the state of Bahia in Brazil.
EGP will invest around $400m to build the solar plant, which is expected to generate over 550GWh of power per year.
The company claims that the amount of energy to be produced at the plant will be enough to meet the annual energy requirements of over 268,000 Brazilian households, while reducing over 185,000t of CO2 emission each year.
The plant, owned by three special purpose vehicles held by Enel Green Power Brasil Participações, is scheduled to be completed and operational by the end of next year.
In addition, a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) has been signed with the Chamber of Commercialisation of Electric Energy (CCEE) to run the project.
EGP CEO Francesco Venturini said: "With the construction of Ituverava Enel Green Power confirms its willingness to play a leading role in the solar sector.
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By GlobalData"Globally EGP has around 1,650 MW of solar projects in execution or contracted, which demonstrate our growing commitment towards the further development of this technology in the coming years".
Currently, EGP has a total installed capacity of 418MW in Brazil.
Out of the total capacity, EGP has 93MW hydro, 313MW wind and 12MW solar, as well as 444MW of projects currently under development.
In August 2015, the company had secured 553MW of solar capacity in Brazil. The newly awarded capacity has made the company a major player in the country’s solar power industry in terms of installed capacity and project portfolio.
Recently, the company received a concession for two existing hydro power plants, which have a combined installed capacity of 40MW.
EGP has presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia, with a generation capacity of around 32bn kWh in 2014 from water, sun, wind and the Earth’s heat.
The company operates about 740 plants in 16 countries.
Apart from Brazil, EGP has plants in other Latin American countries including Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay.
In these Latin American countries, the company has 2,100MW of installed capacity.
According to iTech Post, the company secured three renewable energy projects, which are expected to be completed by 2017.
The company is further planning to invest $9.9bn on energy generation in the next five years in Brazil, Chile and Mexico and expects to add around 7.1GW of capacity by the end of this decade.
