Italian fresh produce company Apofruit Italia has announced it has linked up with Romagna-based energy company Opera Energia (Open) to form Apo Energia, a new joint venture which will develop sources of solar power across its network of its warehouse facilities.
The venture is set to invest a total of €14.5m to install photovoltaic panels that can convert sunlight into energy at seven sites operated by Apofruit in Italy, helping to reduce the group's carbon emissions and dependence on conventional fuel sources.
'Apo Energia has been created in the context of creating products which make use not only of organic production methods, which protect the environment and public health by doing away with the use of chemicals in agriculture, but also renewable sources of electricity, thereby cutting carbon emissions and contributing to the protection of forests growing here in Italy and worldwide,' Apofruit said in a statement.
Apofruit currently operates a total of 12 packhouses plus six storage and distribution centres in Italy. Open, meanwhile, is the renewable energy investment arm of Consorzio Romagna Energia (CRE), which is formed of 14 members.
Over the next two years, Apo Energia plans to generate solar panel installations capable of turning out a combined total of three megawatts of power.
The seven new installations will be in addition to two existing ones already active at Apofruit's Pievesestina and Longiano sites in the province of Forlì-Cesena, south-east of Bologna.
These two operational units already boasts a combined energy output of 208.6 kilowatt hours, enabling them to generate around 230,00 kWh per year.
By the start of 2011, Apofruit facilities at Scanzano Jonico in the province of Matera, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, and Aprilia in the central province of Latina are expected to begin turning out 1.1 MW thanks to the addition of some 10,000m2 of solar panels.
Although the centres' energy output will exceed demand initially, they will be able to sell this electricity to other CRE customers.
'The strategy adopted by Apofruit when it comes to energy use is framed by the cooperative's general policy on the preservation of, and respect for, the environment and health during the past,' added a spokesperson.
'In terms of organic productipon, that commitment has made Apofruit and its Almaverde Bio brand leaders in Europe. Chemical-free production is linked to the use of renewable energy, and Apofruit has built a close association with both of these areas.'
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