Metlen Activates 12-MW Solar Park, Expands Footprint in Puglia Rapidly
- Greek firm Metlen energises a 12-MW solar farm in Puglia, adding 22 GWh to Italy’s grid and paving the way for battery storage at the same site.

Metlen Energy & Metals has flipped the switch on its newest Italian solar asset—a 12-megawatt photovoltaic park on the outskirts of San Severo, Puglia—marking another milestone in the Greek group’s accelerating European rollout.
The facility, fully engineered, procured and constructed in-house, is built around bifacial panels that harvest sunlight from both sides. That design choice, combined with the region’s generous insolation, is expected to yield close to 22 gigawatt-hours of clean electricity each year, enough to meet the annual needs of roughly 7,800 Italian households. Grid connection occurred late last week, allowing commercial operations to begin ahead of the peak-summer demand curve.
Metlen—known as Mytilineos until a sweeping rebrand this spring—describes Italy as a “strategic pillar” of its continental growth plan. The numbers underline that claim: the company now manages 130 Italian solar and storage projects in various stages of development. When the entire pipeline comes online, those installations will add an estimated three gigawatts of renewable capacity to the national mix, reinforcing Italy’s push to hit its 2030 climate targets.
Beyond pure generation, the San Severo site is also earmarked for battery storage. Earlier this year, Metlen secured a 25-megawatt capacity-market contract to pair lithium-ion batteries with the new solar array, offering grid operators the flexibility needed to balance intermittent renewables. Construction on the storage component is slated to start later in 2025.
For Metlen, the investment fits a broader strategy of vertical integration: designing, building and operating assets instead of relying on third-party contractors. The approach trims project timelines and keeps intellectual property—especially EPC know-how—under one roof. It also allows the Athens-listed conglomerate to respond swiftly to shifting subsidy regimes and merchant-power opportunities across Europe.
Italy, for its part, remains fertile ground. Recent legislative tweaks have streamlined permitting for utility-scale plants, while long-term power-purchase agreements are gaining traction among corporate buyers hungry for green electrons. By locking in sites like San Severo now, Metlen positions itself to capture that wave of demand before competition intensifies.
With grid-connection milestones stacking up and storage projects waiting in the wings, Metlen’s latest Italian venture signals more than a single solar park coming online—it foreshadows a portfolio designed to scale quickly as Europe’s energy transition accelerates.
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