AFRY appointed owner's engineer for solar repowering project in Italy

Swedish energy and infrastructure consultancy AFRY AB is set to provide owner’s engineering services for a project that will rehabilitate and repower 60 MW of solar farms in Italy, the firm said on Tuesday.

London-based independent power producer (IPP) ContourGlobal Ltd selected AFRY for the role.

The project will involve rehabilitation and enhancing the efficiency and output of 35 solar farms, situated in nine different regions of Italy. These plants account for roughly half of ContourGlobal’s portfolio in the country, AFRY said.

The Swedish firm said that it role will include review of project plans and permits, detailed examination of project documentation and necessary authorisations, site visits and inspections of materials, monitoring and supervision of the construction process and final checks and supervision during the commissioning phase.

ContourGlobal expects the repowering to raise the installed capacity of the solar farms by 43%. The project will take advantage of the existing land, the higher power density of the new modules and the Italian grid’s hosting capacity, the IPP said in an earlier announcement.

The modernisation of the 35 plants will increase ContourGlobal’s total solar PV capacity in Italy to 113 MW.