MILAN, July 9 (Class Editori) - Enel Green Power strengthens itself in India. Through its subsidiary EGP India, it has just signed a long-term collaborative investment agreement with Norfund, a Norwegian investment fund addressed to developing countries, in order to finance, implement and manage new renewable energy projects.
"This agreement offers us the opportunity of widening and strengthening our presence in India, after having recently won our first tender in the solar energy sector of this country", as Antonio Cammisecra, CEO of Enel Green Power, has stated.
"By joining forces with an important partner as Norfund, which shares our commitment to sustainability and decarbonization, we will exploit our technical expertise in order to enhance the significant growth potential of India in the renewable energy field, by contributing, at the same time, to the achievement of the sustainable energy goals of the country."
EGP India will manage the development and implementation of the project, while Norfund will invest in order to achieve specific goals, by therefore becoming equity partner. The Indian government plans are ambitious: the target is reaching 60 GW of wind energy by 2022, compared to the current 38 GW. EGP India owns and manages 172 MW of wind energy capacity in the regions of Gujarat and Maharashtra and is ready to enter the solar energy sector, with an energy supply contract lasting 25 years, addressed to a project of 420 MW in the Rajasthan region.
However, there is another area EGP is looking with growing interest at: Africa, which has an exceptional potential but produces only 2 percent of renewable energies. The data has been disclosed by "Connecting the dots. Why only 2 percent of global RE in Africa?", just published by Enel Green Power and Res4Africa foundation. With only 10 years ahead in order to achieve the Agenda 2030 goals, the joint analysis shows that "Africa is the region which has experienced the lowest development of the sector in the last decade, even though it is the continent with the greatest richness and resources potential."
If we look at the geographical distribution of renewable energies, China is ranking first (41 percent), followed by Europe (22 percent) and North America (11 percent). South America (6 percent) and India (5 percent) lag behind. The rest of the world, including Africa, accounts for 13 percent in overall.
Also the presence of Enel Green Power is included in this rate; at the moment, it can boast 12 plants, both wind and photovoltaic, by reaching an installed capacity of 659 MW. South Africa is on the top position, with 570 MW distributed among 9 plants: 4 wind and 5 solar plants. New developments will take place in Morocco as well, with two wind plants of 55 MW.
Zambia closely follows, with a solar plant of 34 MW. According to esteems, the African potential related to renewable energies should give rise to a production amounting at 24,000 TWh of electricity each year, equal to 90 percent of the global electricity production of 2018 and 26 times higher than the one currently produced by the continent. "We cannot be satisfied with what has been achieved until this moment", Cammisecra has underlined. "The global access to electricity will not be guaranteed if we will not be able to accelerate the transition towards renewable energies."
In the meantime, Enel has established a company in order to carry out a customs warehouse network, addressed to the restoration and reconversion of unused areas and infrastructures located near plants, in compliance with circular economy projects. Areas near strategic places will be chosen, namely ports, airports and interports. The first two pilot sites, as disclosed by Carlo Tamburi, Director of Enel Italia, could be already active from the beginning of 2021, in the areas of the power station Eugenio Montale in La Spezia (Liguria) and of the power station Marzocco in Livorno (Tuscany).
(Source:Class Editori)
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