Italy's largest wind project begins operations

ITALY: Italian renewable energy group Falck Renewables has begun commercial operations of the first group of turbines at its 138MW Buddosò and Alà dei Sardi wind farm in Sardinia.

The project will use 2MW Enercon turbines

Falck Renewables said the wind farm, which will rank as Italy’s largest wind farm when fully operational later this year, should produce 330/GWh of electricity annually. It is composed of 69, 2MW turbines from German manufacturer Enercon

The project, which last year received a €230 million project financing loan, is expected to generate annual revenues of €50 million.

Falck now has about 526MW of installed renewable energy capacity, primarily in wind energy, and is aiming at 1.1 GW by end-2014.

Meanwhile, Swiss energy firm BKW FMB Energy has acquired 62MW in wind farms in the southern Italian region of Apulia from its former partner Fortore Energia.  With the purchase for an undisclosed sum of the 42 MW Ripacandida wind farm and the 20MW Buglia wind farm, BKW’s total Italian wind capacity has risen  to 144 MW.