Mubasher: Italian oil and gas major Eni’s subsidiary in Australia completed the acquisition of a solar photovoltaic (PV) project close to Katherine, the Northern Territory of Australia.

The project is a joint venture (JV) between Australia’s Epuron and the UK’s Island Green Power.

When completed, the plant would be the largest PV farm in the Northern Territory, with a deployment 33.7 megawatt peak (MWp) of ground-mounted PV panels and a battery storage system with a capacity of 57 megavolt ampere (MVA) per 2.9 megawatt hour (MWh).

Construction is set to start in the few weeks ahead, with an expected commercial operation date in the fourth quarter of this year, while Epuron would have an active role in running the farm once it is operational.

The new plant will also be able to predict and offset possible variations in solar irradiation, with an innovative cloud coverage predicting technology.

The PV farm would contribute to the Northern Territory’s government target to source 50% of its power from renewables by 2030, reducing thereby nearly 63,000 tonnes of Co2 equivalent emissions per year.

The initiative heralds Eni’s entry in the Australian renewables market, while it consolidates its existing assets in the region’s oil and gas industry.

 Outside Australia, Eni has been active recently in the Middle East.

The company’s CEO Claudio Descalzi on Tuesday met with Iraq’s deputy prime minister of energy affairs Thamir Al Ghadhban, discussing prospects investments “that will further strengthen Eni’s relationship with [the country]” as well as progress on social projects, such as healthcare, education, and access to clean drinking water, currently underway in Basra.”

Moreover,  Eni also signed last January a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bahrain’s National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), under which the Italian energy giant to begin drilling operations for the first oil exploratory well in the northern maritime bloc 1.