TRIESTE – Thanks to Interporto Padova, the first industrial-scale Renewable Energy Community (REC) in the area is now a reality.
The logistics hub is making the roof of one of its warehouses available for the installation of a 1-megawatt solar power system, marking a concrete step toward decarbonizing the city’s industrial district. This innovative setup will generate over one million kilowatt-hours of solar energy annually, through a photovoltaic plant covering 20,000 square meters in the industrial area. The initiative, promoted by Interporto Padova in cooperation with GIFT Srl and Ambico Group, launches the city’s first Renewable Energy Community (REC) in an industrial setting. The project aims to deliver shared environmental, economic, and social benefits. The energy produced will be distributed among the community members, including companies, public entities, and eventually citizens as well. Businesses located in the area will be able to join the REC and access specific government incentives.
Project management is entrusted to GIFT Srl, while Ambico handled the procurement of private funding and resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). According to estimates, the plant will prevent around 520 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year, significantly contributing to the EU’s climate neutrality goals for 2030. But ambitions go further: the objective is to create a network of RECs capable of covering up to 30% of the industrial zone’s energy needs, with a total capacity of 300 MW. Jonathan Morello Ritter, head of Ambico Group and one of the project’s main promoters, emphasized that now is the ideal time to invest in photovoltaics—even for public authorities, which can take advantage of unused spaces. Luciano Greco, president of Interporto Padova, highlighted the company’s long-standing commitment to sustainable innovation, viewing this initiative as a foundational step toward the regeneration of the entire industrial area.
In the meantime, an additional 3 MWp has been added to the historic rooftop photovoltaic system originally inaugurated back in 2010. The total capacity has thus increased from 13 MWp to 16 MWp. Technological advancements made it possible to replace part of the original solar panels installed on Interporto’s warehouses with state-of-the-art modules. A total of 7,770 new monocrystalline silicon panels (N-type technology), each with a capacity of 425 Wp, have been installed—boosting the plant’s output by 3.3 MWp. As a result, the overall system capacity has risen from 13 MWp to an impressive 16.3 MWp, generating enough electricity to meet the annual consumption needs of approximately 6,500 households. Interporto Padova was a pioneer in rooftop utility-scale photovoltaic installations: at the time of its inauguration in 2010 (with the project having started in 2007), the Padua plant was the largest of its kind in Italy.
