Renewable energy sources definitely represent the way out of the present crisis for the Bologna based Bonfiglioli Riduttori Group, Italy’s largest and Europe’s third largest manufacturer of industrial gearboxes and gearmotors.  Bonfiglioli recently won a major contract in Puertollano, in the heart of the Iberian peninsula, where the world’s biggest photovoltaic energy installation is located. The massive installation covers an area the size of 185 football pitches, or 118 hectares of ground, and has been up and running for a year. The Puertollano photovoltaic plant is run by Renovalia, a private company with about 100 shareholders, most of whom are members of the Ortega family, Spain’s biggest cheese manufacturer.

Bonfiglioli Riduttori supplied a total of 475 inverters for this plant, to transform the DC power produced by 350,000 photovoltaic panels into alternating current. Under ideal climatic conditions the plant generates 46 MW of energy, which it sells to Endesa, the electrical power company belonging to the Spanish state. The original target of the Puertollano plant was to produce 69 MW, but recent changes to Spanish law obliged Renovalia to re-dimension their photovoltaic operations. The company will nevertheless reach the originally planned 69 MW when a sister plant is finished on the next hillside to the existing site, this time, however, producing thermodynamic solar energy. Bonfiglioli will also be supplying inverters for this second installation. The Puertollano photovoltaic plant is currently achieving an annual output of 66 gigawatt/hours.

Bonfiglioli’s earnings from renewable energy applications currently account for a sixth of the group’s turnover. The figure in question is around 100 million Euros per annum (2008 figure) out of a total of 664.5 (consolidated turnover). 20.5 million Euros of this comes from photovoltaic technology (773,849 from Germany and 19,715,000 Euros from Spain), 86 million from wind and about 2 million from biomass and thermal solar. Bonfiglioli’s short term objective is to achieve further growth before the end of 2009. According to Managing Director Sonia Bonfiglioli, turnover from photovoltaics could top around 30 million Euros with a further 100 million Euros or so from wind power.

The construction of new green energy installations has also been recently announced in Italy. These latest plants will be built by the Spanish Renovalia group with Bonfiglioli again supplying the inverters. A total of 7 sites will be built to generate electricity using photovoltaic technology. Work on the first, in Bianco, Calabria, is due to begin in about 2 months. The locations chosen for the new plants are in Gravina (18.52 MW), Irsilia (30 MW), Sicily (8.60 MW), Rome (40.48 MW), Bianco (15.86 MW), Tarquinia (10.57 MW) and Nardo (18.57 MW).