Enel launches the largest solar power plant in northern Italy

The Trino solar power plant located in Piedmont was partially financed through a crowdfunding campaign launched in 2022. Local residents have invested in the project and will begin to recover once operations begin. This project demonstrates a new form of citizen participation in the field of renewable energy, enabling local communities to directly benefit from energy infrastructure. This is not the first initiative of this type in Italy. Indeed, last year Enel’s smaller competitor Edison inaugurated a new hydroelectric plant, also partly financed by the local community and its extended customer base.

Impressive numbers

The Trino site, formerly a nuclear power plant closed after a 1987 vote banning nuclear power, now has 160,000 photovoltaic panels. The plant will produce approximately 130 GWh per year, providing green energy to approximately 47,000 homes. Additionally, the plant is equipped with a battery storage system with a power of 25 MW and a capacity of 100 MWh. The installation of an additional, larger storage system is planned in the near future. These numbers exceed those for RWE’s photovoltaic projects in Sicily.

Impact on the energy transformation

Until recently, Italy’s energy transition relied mainly on the installation of rooftop solar panels, a small-scale strategy that keeps energy production costs high and slows progress toward decarbonization. The Trino plant marks a significant shift towards larger scale facilities, key to achieving national carbon reduction targets. But the project comes as Italy’s right-wing coalition recently approved rules limiting the installation of solar panels on agricultural land, prompting criticism of their potential impact on Rome’s decarbonization goals. Overall, the Trino solar plant represents an important step in Italy’s energy transition, combining technological innovation and community engagement to accelerate large-scale renewable energy production.