Aquila Breaks Ground on 52-MW Agrivoltaic Solar Project in Sicily

• Aquila Clean Energy has begun building a 52 MW agrivoltaic plant near Catania, Sicily—part of its 570 MW regional pipeline—blending solar power with local farming to advance Italy’s green transition.

Construction has officially kicked off on Aquila Clean Energy EMEA’s newest agrivoltaic venture: a 52-megawatt solar farm spread across about 100 hectares of farmland outside Catania. The Hamburg-based investor says the hybrid layout will let crops thrive beneath elevated photovoltaic rows while feeding clean electricity into Sicily’s grid.

Dual-use design

Unlike conventional ground-mount arrays, the modules are raised two to three metres above the soil, leaving room for tractors, irrigation lines and seasonal planting. Local cooperatives have already earmarked portions of the site for citrus groves and fodder crops, ensuring farmers keep full use of the land while earning a second income stream from lease payments.

Timeline and output

Civil works began this week, with panel installation scheduled for late summer. Commercial operation is targeted for the first half of 2026. Once online, the farm is expected to generate roughly 100 GWh of electricity a year—enough to cover the annual consumption of more than 23,000 Sicilian households—and displace around 50,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, according to company estimates.

Part of a larger Sicilian push

The Catania plant is one of seven solar projects Aquila plans across the island. In total the firm has earmarked about €0.5 billion for 570 MW of capacity in Sicily, the bulk of which will follow the same agrivoltaic blueprint. Aquila’s Italian head of development, Alberto Arcioli, calls Sicily “a strategic territory” thanks to its high irradiation and supportive regional policies. He adds that agronomic studies were carried out “plot by plot” to match panel spacing with optimal crop species.

Financing and broader strategy

Today’s groundbreaking follows Aquila Group’s wider European build-out, which recently pushed its clean-energy projects under construction past the 1 GW mark. The company says it continues to layer long-term power-purchase agreements onto each asset to lock in revenue and hedge merchant risk while providing corporate offtakers with traceable green electricity.

Local impact

During peak activity the site will employ around 120 construction workers, with a dozen permanent technical roles once operations begin. Regional officials welcomed the project, noting it dovetails with Sicily’s goal of sourcing 63 % of its electricity from renewables by 2030.

With the first pile driven and contracts in place, Aquila’s Catania project now moves from blueprint to build—showcasing how solar arrays and Sicilian agriculture can flourish side by side.