Engie brings live 50-MW Italian agrivoltaic park to supply Amazon

French energy group Engie SA (EPA:ENGI) on Friday announced the commissioning of a 50-MW/66-MW DC agrivoltaic solar farm in Sicily to supply electricity to the Italian arm of e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).

The photovoltaic (PV) farm, touted as Italy’s largest agrivoltaic complex, will deliver most of its output to Amazon, while the rest will be fed into the national power grid.

Located between Marsala and Mazara del Vallo, in the province of Trapani, the solar park will be run under a corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) signed at the end of 2020. Construction works were initiated in the following year.

By placing the PV panels high above the ground, the project was designed to combine solar power production with agricultural crop cultivation. The Mazara del Vallo complex is equipped with bifacial solar panels and single-axis trackers.

Amazon’s commitment to buy green power from Engie will also enable the construction of another agrivoltaic plant in Paterno, in the province of Catania. The 38-MW site is due to become operational by the end of this year, supporting the e-commerce group’s goal of using renewable power for 100% of its global operations by 2025.

At present, Engie has five wind and solar parks in Sicily with a combined capacity of 174 MW, while an additional 68 MW of projects are under construction.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!