Enel Green Power has activated the largest photovoltaic plant in northern Italy in Trino, in the province of Vercelli, Piedmont, which has a capacity of about 87 MW and will produce about 130 GWh each year.

The Enel Group's renewable energy company writes in a note, adding that the plant will meet the energy needs of about 47,000 households, avoiding the emission of 56,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere and the use of 29 million cubic meters of gas.

"The construction of the plant is part of Enel's broader path to increase the development of renewable sources," reads the note, which adds that the group plans to invest more than 12 billion euros for this purpose over the next three years.

The Trino solar park, consisting of 160,000 panels, stands in the area that until 1987 housed one of the four second-generation nuclear power plants operating in the country.

The plant had then been converted into Italy's first combined-cycle thermoelectric power plant, which was closed in 2013.

(Matteo Negri, editing Francesca Piscioneri)