ForVEI acquires three solar power plants from the OPDE Group in Italy for 55 million euros

The ForVEI investment company has acquired three solar photovoltaic farms promoted and built by the OPDE Group in the Italian region of Piamonte, which altogether produce 13.2 MW of power. The solar farms, which are connected and 100% operational, are located in Tortona (7 MW) and Alessandria (two farms, with 5 and 1.2 MW, respectively).
The operation, financed by Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, cost a total of 55 million euros (75 million dollars) and has become the largest finance leasing contract ever signed with a single Italian bank for investment in solar energy. Intesa Sanpaolo SPA will own the three solar power plants for the next 18 years, during which time ForVEI will pay a monthly lease to operate the solar farms.
The three plants that ForVEI has already purchased in Piamonte have been built with TRINA and CSI modules, SMA inverters and a MECASOLAR axis trackers.
This purchase is the first part of an operation that will be complemented next October with the acquisition by ForVEI of additional solar farms promoted and built by the OPDE Group in Italy. The Managing Director of the OPDE Group,  José Antonio Mieres, views the operation as being very positive.
“The agreement is yet another demonstration of the trajectory of the Italian solar photovoltaic energy market, which still represents good opportunities for investment. In addition, it strengthens and reinforces our commitment to and presence on the Italian market, where our Group has a number of projects in progress and where we will soon start construction on new solar farms,” Mieres points out.

PRESENCE OF THE OPDE GROUP IN ITALY
OPDE ITALIA, along with MECASOLAR ITALIA and PROINSO ITALIA, form the Italian subsidiaries of the OPDE Group. In the case of MECASOLAR ITALIA, specialized in the manufacture of solar trackers, fixed structures and foundation screws, the company has its own assembly factory in Torino-ITALY (in addition to those it already has in Greece, USA, Canada and Spain), facilities where OPDE ITALIA is also located.
Besides trackers for solar farms promoted by OPDE, MECASOLAR has an external order book for 42 MW confirmed on the Italian market; accordingly, it is expected that is sales will exceed 100 MW in Italy in 2011. This factory located in Torino will provide maintenance for all the trackers supplied by MECASOLAR in Italy.
PROINSO ITALIA  represented 50% of PROINSO's gross sales figures internationally in 2010. It distributed 456 MW of modules and inverters around the world, earning business figures of 165 million euros last quarter in Italy alone, of the more than 320 million euros that PROINSO's international subsidiaries and OPDE Group members billed on the world market. In Italy, PROINSO has more than 650 Qualified Installers as part of its International Network, which includes more than 1700 companies internationally.
All the activities and projects mentioned above have led to the OPDE Group's plan to build solar photovoltaic farms with a overall power of 200 MW at the end of the 2011-2012 year, with this being the total installed amount by the end of 2012. This means a total accumulated investment of 850 million euros by the end of the year 2012.

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