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Our business is closely involved in people lives.

We ensure residents receive essential services for their daily life.

At your side in your community

Managing your water services. Distributing energy. Selling electricity and gas. Recycling waste. Our one objective: to create value for the people and the community in which we operate.

Nowadays, innovation is at everyone's fingertips.

Acea sees innovation as the driving force to become more efficient, to raise the quality of life for our customers, to improve services for the residents and the community. Acea has used all this to create a new culture of innovation: an open culture, which everyone can share and take part in.

Our Group serves local communities and their citizens.

We are fully aware of our role of responsibility towards our stakeholders for our major economic, social and environmental impact. This is why our Sustainability Plan is part and parcel of our Business Plan.

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Our stories

Technology, sustainability, and talent development: we tell the story of Acea through our people, projects, and initiatives for the local communities.

Solar energy for a sustainable development

The sun has always played an important role in the history of mankind: in many ancient cultures it was worshiped as a divinity, centuries later, the Romans understood its potential to produce heat inside greenhouses, and Leonardo Da Vinci created a mirror to dry fabric thanks to the heat produced by the sun. Fundamental to the development of life on Earth, today the sun can be used also to produce clean energy.

Solar energy is a source of sustainable energy and it is potentially unlimited: every 50 minutes the sun produces enough energy to satisfy global energy needs for an entire year.

The power of the sun can be captured using different technologies: solar thermal technology, which captures solar heat, and photovoltaic technology, which transforms solar irradiance in electricity.

The latter – born almost 150 years ago but industrialized only since the 1950s – in 2019 grew by 24%, and costs approximately 80% less compared to 10 years ago. Italy produced 115 TWh of green energy from renewable sources, 20% of which using photovoltaic technology, for a total of 24 Twh: most installations are industrial plants and are located in the country’s northern and central regions.

How does photovoltaic technology work?

Photovoltaics convert solar light into energy thanks to:

photovoltaic panels
with the use of silicon cells – semiconductors that exposed to light produce electricity;
an inverter
a device that converts the electricity generated by the panels into alternating current for domestic use;
a control system
that monitors the plant and makes available all the energy that can be produced.

Photovoltaics at Acea Group

“Archimedes, 2300 years ago, used the power of the sun to burn Roman ships during the siege of Syracuse. Today, Acea makes a less theatrical, cutting-edge use of the same solar power to produce sustainable clean energy”, says Simone Nunzio Sammartino, Head of Pv Asset Management at Acea Produzione.

The Group’s 2020-2024 Business Plan mainly focuses on strengthening green energy production, especially solar energy from photovoltaic technology, in support of decarbonization and energy transition.

Acea sees growth and creating value as intricately connected to achieving corporate environmental sustainability goals. Out of a 4.7 billion total budget, Acea’s Business Plan sets aside 2.1 billion euros – over 400 million euros more compared to the previous Plan – to achieve specific sustainability targets.

These targets include fighting the effects of climate change by increasing the production of electricity from photovoltaic plants. On this point in particular, Acea aims to expand its portfolio with approximately 747 MW of installed capacity from photovoltaic plants by the end of 2024. The new plants will produce over 1.3 Twh per year, equivalent to releasing approximately 600 kt less of CO2 emissions.

Electricity produced by the Acea Group in 2022

940.91

GWh (gross)

electricity produced by Acea

68%

electricity from renewable sources

111.9

GWh

electricity produced by Acea’s photovoltaic plants

Acea manages photovoltaic plants located mainly in Puglia and in central Italy. The total power installed is approximately 72.5 MW with a production capacity of approximately 80GWh/year, enough to cover the needs of 20,000 families for a year. “With the new development plan, we will double the installed capacity reaching enough power to produce clean energy through structures that use the best technology available on the market.” said Sammartino.

The advantages of solar energy

A new way of conceiving energy

From worshiped divinity to source of energy, the sun keeps opening new possibilities, many of which are based on environmental sustainability. With time, it has become clear that we need to invest in new energy opportunities developed from sustainable technologies: solar energy is one of them.

In the near future, the sun will allow us to use 100% sustainable energy produced by plants owned by companies like Acea. But this in not all. “Just like a vineyard, the production of a photovoltaic plant is seasonal, and this is why we want to look to the future by including in the project the possibility of storing energy using cutting-edge accumulation systems able to provide sustainable energy during the periods in which radiance is lower and to fully participate in energy regulatory markets. With a more adventurous approach, we are considering options to create an energy synergy by including floating photovoltaic structures in our hydroelectric basins”, explains Sammartino.
There is no doubt that the future is be green, and this will also be thanks to the sun.