Edison inaugurates the new wind farm in Mazara del Vallo (Trapani - Sicily)

With a total capacity of 45 MW the wind farm can meet the energy needs of nearly 50,000 families and avoid emissions of around 52,000 tonnes of CO2 per year into the atmosphere. Edison confirms its commitment to Sicily as well as its role as a leading operator in the energy transition, truly contributing to the Sicilian renewable development.

Mazara del Vallo (Trapani – Sicily), June 15th, 2022 – Edison inaugurates a new wind farm in Mazara del Vallo (Trapani) and reinforces its commitment to developing renewable generation, a key pillar of the growth of the company’s core business. Edison wind capacity is now more than 1 GW thanks to this new 45 MW plant. Edison therefore reinforces its leading position in this industry sector in Italy. In line with Italian and European decarbonisation and energy transition policies, Edison plans to increase its installed renewable power from 2 to 5 GW, thanks to investments of 3 billion euros by 2030, 300 million of which to be allocated to Sicily in the next three years alone.

“Edison is a responsible operator and is committed to the energy transition with an ambitious and real investment plan,” says the Edison CEO, Nicola Monti. “We are playing a leading role in transitioning Italy to carbon neutrality, and we are committed to building a sustainable future to the benefit of people and companies. The new wind farm in Mazara del Vallo is an important step forward in this process of evolution and it confirms Edison’s investments in Sicily for the renewable development in this area.”

“We were among the first to develop renewables in Sicily. We started almost 20 years ago. Our relationship with this area is based on mutual awareness and trust,” says Marco Stangalino, Executive Vice President, Power Asset Division at Edison. “Today we confirm the strength of that partnership. The Mazara del Vallo wind farm is a concrete demonstration of it and we wish to have further opportunities for joint developments. Sicily wants to pursue its sustainable development very decisively and actively and Edison will definitely be a supporter of that process.”

The wind farm in Mazara del Vallo has a total capacity of 45 MW and can produce renewable energy to cover the needs of around 50,000 families. With 14 three-blade wind turbines, it generates around 125 GWh a year, avoiding emissions of around 52,000 tonnes of CO2 into the air per year. The construction work lasted three years. Local suppliers and contractors were employed, working a total of more than 112,000 hours.

Sicily is a key area for Edison, which plans to contribute to the region’s renewable development with investments of more than 300 million euros over the next 3 years. These investments will be used to build 2 greenfield wind farms of about 65 MW and 8 photovoltaic plants of more than 240 MW, including photovoltaic plants in Agira and Aidone (Enna) which are currently under construction.

Edison has an installed renewable capacity of 2.2 GW and has proposed projects and initiated authorisation procedures to develop a further 1,500 MW, of which 800 wind and more than 700 photovoltaic, for a total of 63 installations between greenfield and repowering. Specifically, projects representing more than 1,300 MW will be implemented in Southern Italy, more than 200 MW in in Northern and Central Italy over the next 4 years.

Edison has unique competences in the wind farm repowering: it promoted the Charter for Sustainable Wind Power Renewal and was one of the first operators in Italy to put its principles into practice, through repowering activities completed in recent years in Abruzzo, Basilicata and Apulia (approximately 120 MW).

In order to ensure the security of the Italian energy system, Edison’s renewable energy growth plan also includes the development of flexibility systems, like hydroelectric pumping and storage batteries, as well as state-of-the-art gas-fired generation, which are essential to compensate the intermittency of renewable sources.

Edison is a responsible operator committed to the energy transition in Italy, with a strategy focusing on developing renewable generation, energy services, sales and services for end consumers as well as gas and green gas activities. Through its development plan, Edison aims at increasing renewable generation to 40% of its generation portfolio by 2030.