Enel, here are the US investments in Cattaneo’s sights
Enel's next boss, Cattaneo, criticized the energy group's investments in the United States, where it will open a large solar panel factory modeled on the Sicilian one. The point in view of the shareholders' meeting
“It is necessary to build an all-Italian supply chain that also includes the national production of [solar, ed. ] panels. I know that Enel has opened a plant in Catania dedicated to this but then it also did it in the USA. It's an approach that I don't share: if you want to safeguard the national interest, it should be produced in Italy and not elsewhere”. These are concepts exposed a few weeks ago in the Foglio by Flavio Cattaneo, the name indicated by the government for the role of CEO of Enel: the vote for the renewal of the company's board of directors will be held on May 10, preceded by weeks of heated battles between shareholders and lists .
– For further information, read also: China pro Scaroni, Cattaneo anti foreign investments and Norway pro Mazzucchelli. All geopolitical dossiers for Enel
In the interview with Foglio Cattaneo – former manager of Italo and Terna – referred (when he had not yet been indicated by the government as managing director of the energy group) to two things: the expansion of the 3Sun photovoltaic panel factory in Catania, in Sicily ; and the construction of a solar device plant in the United States . In the first case, Enel invested 600 million euros, receiving 188 million in European funds; in the second case, the investment amounts roughly to 1 billion dollars and was favored by the incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, the law supporting the American manufacturing of technologies for the energy transition.
WHAT ENEL WILL DO IN SICILY
In 2024, once the expansion works have been completed – the production capacity will go from 200 megawatts per year to 3 gigawatts – the Catania plant will be the largest European plant of bifacial photovoltaic modules, which have greater efficiency than traditional ones.
Currently about three quarters of the solar panels used in Europe come from China. In the absence of a sufficiently large internal production, this dependency ratio is probably destined to grow in parallel with the increase in the installation of photovoltaic parks.
The condition placed by Brussels on Enel in exchange for public funding is that 60 percent of the production of the Sicilian factory be destined for the Community market.
ENEL'S PLANS FOR SOLAR PANELS IN THE UNITED STATES
In November last year Enel, through its local subsidiary 3Sun USA, announced a project for the construction of a photovoltaic cell and panel factory in the United States. The initial production capacity will be 3 GW per year, eventually to be increased to 6 GW. The plant should open in 2025 and it is important because it will "close" the supply chain of solar components in the country, where at the moment there is no manufacturing of cells (the devices that form the panels).
In a statement , the company drew a direct link between its plans for Sicily and those for the United States: "Enel intends to replicate the Gigafactory factory in the United States to produce bifacial heterojunction solar cells (B-HJT)," it read. in the note from the group led by the CEO, Francesco Starace, which the government does not want to reconfirm.
ALL NUMBERS OF ENEL NORTH AMERICA
Enel North America, the US division of the Rome-based group, provides various types of energy services – generation from renewable sources, flexibility, electric mobility, trading, consultancy – to over 4,500 customers including businesses (including Meta and Google), electricity companies and inhabited.
It has a total of sixty-four renewable energy plants (solar, wind, geothermal) in the United States, both operational and under construction, with a capacity of 9.6 GW. Added to these are 606 MW of battery storage capacity (fourteen large-scale installations) and 110,000 charging stations for electric vehicles.
Enel North America is present in fourteen states of the United States, with a particular concentration in those of the Midwest, such as Kansas and Oklahoma. Just Oklahoma (the Tulsa area, more specifically) is the favorite location for the large solar panel factory.
IPO IN PLACE FOR ENEL NORTH AMERICA?
In November 2022, the outgoing director Francesco Starace spoke of the possibility of an initial public offering, i.e. a listing on the stock exchange, for Enel North America. He had indicated the following twelve months as a time horizon, subject to an assessment of market conditions and attitude. Starace had in fact defined Enel North America as a "strange big beast", which encompasses many different activities and technologies.
– Read also: Here are the Enel accounts left by Starace (gagged by the board)
DOES CATTANEO HINDER BIDEN AND EMBARRISE MELONI?
Enel's investment in the United States has strategic value for the nation, for those supply chain reasons already mentioned which will allow the country to start a competition with China on photovoltaic technologies. But it also has political significance for President Joe Biden, because it should create 1,500 direct jobs.
Oklahoma is a state with a large white majority, agricultural and closely linked to the hydrocarbon industry (but has a high wind potential): it is exactly that kind of state, that is, that Biden wants to convince of the convenience of the ecological transition, which is not only emission rules but also – so your administration repeats – JOBS JOBS JOBS .
Will Cattaneo's statements on the inappropriateness of American investment damage the image of Giorgia Meloni, declared Atlanticist, in the eyes of the White House?
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/enel-progetti-stati-uniti/ on Mon, 08 May 2023 10:56:12 +0000.