Italy’s renewable project pipeline starts to emerge

Review Energy spoke to Andrés Medina about the challenges for what lies ahead in terms of renewables in Italy and the rest of Europe


Dozens of studies confirm that it will be engineers who will lead the development of renewable energies in the future. And SOLIDA, an engineering company specialising in renewables and a global leader, expert in consultancy, digitalisation and the development of innovative tools, has understood the terrain very well.

With more than 100 GW of accumulated experience in photovoltaic, wind, solar thermal and biomass projects, the company has been involved in more than a thousand projects in nearly 50 countries.

And it was precisely at Energyear Italy, the renewables industry’s top-rated networking congress, that SOLIDA analysed the Italian market landscape and discussed how it is preparing for what is to come for the sector in 2023 and 2024.

During the congress, Review Energy spoke to Andrés Medina, the company’s Business Development Director. According to Medina, “the sector has recognised us as a leading engineering company thanks to the experience accumulated over 15 years working exclusively in renewables. This specialisation is evident in all the company’s teams”.

With a back-up of almost 200 people, mostly engineers, Medina assures that the company is managing to work on large-scale and complex projects, some of which are among the largest in the world, while at the same time maintaining the closeness and flexibility of when the company was just starting out. “All this, together with the technological profile that we have had since our origins, and where the R&D team has a lot to do with this success,” he explained.

What is the position on the Italian market?

According to Medina, the Italian market is a very interesting market. “We have been working on it for several years. We have seen an evolution, it is true that the objectives are clear and very ambitious. And although we are still far away, we see that this delay in the processing of projects is starting to see the light of day”.

The Business Development Director stated that it was precisely Energyear Italy that gave him the opportunity to talk to several of his clients and that it was they themselves who confirmed that next year we will start to see the first projects under construction of a certain size.

“One thing that sets the Italian market apart from others is the size of the projects. Here we are not going to see those big plants of 400, 500 or 600 MW as in the case of Spain; the trend is going to be smaller. We will have to see how the value chain is able to adapt, both EPC contractors (turnkey projects) and large equipment manufacturers, to this size of project,” he said.
He also acknowledged that we are also seeing more and more hybrid projects, not only old projects that hybridise with other technology, but projects that already have a wind, photovoltaic and storage component from their conception.

According to Medina, SOLIDA’s engineering department will have the obligation to optimise the projects as much as possible. “We are working hard on everything that has to do with earthworks in conjunction between the specialists in the civil department and the R&D department to be able to adapt solutions to increasingly complex terrain. In addition, we believe that the issue of storage is beginning to take on more relevance and in engineering we have to be able to integrate the two technologies well,” he concluded.

You can watch the full interview here:

Source: Review Energy