GEOGREEN LAUNCHES EUR 10 MILLION INVESTMENT PLAN TO FURTHER INCREASE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF RADICIGROUP COMPANIES.
Geogreen and RadiciGroup are speeding up their photovoltaic development with the inauguration of a new solar plant in the Municipality of Isola Dovarese in the Province of Cremona. Participating at the official ribbon cutting were the Geogreen shareholders including President Angelo Radici, the mayor of the Municipality of Isola Dovarese and other local officials.
The photovoltaic plant is located in an area previously occupied by a RadiciGroup production site inactive since 2005. After demolition and requalification work, the land was sold to Geogreen, the sole renewable energy supplier for RadiciGroup.
The solar plant, which has been built taking into account environmental and landscape requirements without using any additional land, extends over a surface area of 40 thousand square metres and consists of over 5,000 photovoltaic panels with installed power of about 4 MW and estimated annual production of about 5.5 million kWh, corresponding to the annual consumption of about 2,000 families.
One hundred percent of the energy produced will be used by RadiciGroup, thus preventing the potential emission to the atmosphere of over 2,500 metric tons of CO2 per year that would be generated by the procurement of a comparable amount of energy from non-renewable sources.
Geogreen, which until yesterday was focused on producing renewable hydroelectric energy at its 6 power stations, has now implemented its diversification plan with the production of solar energy at its new plant in Isola Dovarese. Therefore, Geogreen has confirmed its growth strategy in renewable energies backed by a EUR 10-million three-year investment plan, already approved by its Board of Directors.
Angelo Radici, President of Geogreen, stated: “The inauguration of this photovoltaic plant is an important step in our commitment to sustainability and energy transition. Investing in renewable energies is essential to reduce environmental impact and ensure a more sustainable future for our companies, our region and local communities, which we are proud to be part of.”
The photovoltaic panels in our new plant use solar tracking technology and are bifacial, so as to increase productivity by 20% compared to traditional solar systems.
“Our investment in the construction of the isola Dovarese plant was EUR 4 million,” Massimo De Petro, CEO of Geogreen, said. “As part of the project, Geogreen has included certain work for the benefit of the Municipality di Isola Dovarese: the donation of a portion of the former industrial site to the municipality as a storage area for various materials, the installation of a wall charging unit for electric vehicles and the installation of a 16-kilowatt photovoltaic system on the roof of the municipal warehouse to cover a portion of the municipal government’s energy consumption. What’s more, a 25,000-square metre area adjacent to the solar plant will be retained as a green space, a ‘green lung’ for the local community.”
The energy produced by the Geogreen Isola Doverese system will be used by a RadiciGroup company based in the Province of Bergamo, which will sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Geogreen to guarantee that it will have renewable energy to run its plants and thus contribute to the Group decarbonization plan.
“In keeping with Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and Goal 13 (Climate Action) of the United Nations Agenda 2030,” concluded Angelo Radici, in his role as President of RadiciGroup, “the reduction of emissions and adoption of renewable energy are the pillars of the strategy implemented by the Group to tackle climate change. Already today, RadiciGroup uses 59% renewable energy and, through its plan “From Earth to Earth”, it has set a special target of a 20% increase and diversification in renewable sources compared to its 2021 scenario.”
