Grafica Veneta aims to exceed 200 MW by 2028

The SoFiGraf Group, the holding company that controls Grafica Veneta, is accelerating its expansion into renewable energy. Through GV Energy, installed capacity has now reached 110 MW, compared with around 60 MW at the end of 2025 and 18 MW at the start of 2024, when Gianmarco Franceschi joined SoFiGraf with direct responsibility for energy development. He is the driving force behind the acquisition of a portfolio of around 60 MW comprising operational plants, acquired projects and those at an advanced stage of development. The latest transaction is the acquisition of the Helios 55 agrovoltaic project, with a total planned investment of 50 million euros and an expected start-up in the second half of 2027, in the Foggia area, with the ramp-up in capacity confirming the Group’s commitment to building a genuine industrial platform in the energy sector rather than merely pursuing financial diversification.

“When we set out, the Group already had significant energy assets, but it was not yet realising its full industrial potential,” emphasises Gianmarco Franceschi, Managing Director of the SoFiGraf Group. “In a short space of time, we have given this journey structure, direction and scale. Today, GV Energy is launched with the ambition of becoming an independent, robust platform capable of rapid growth. We are not entering the energy sector as financial investors, but as industrialists. We have been producing renewable energy at our plants since 2009 and have learnt that energy is a strategic asset. “With GV Energy, we aim to bring to the sector the same long-term vision, the same financial discipline and the same ability to execute that have characterised the Group’s industrial growth.”

The Helios 55 agrovoltaic project covers an area of approximately 135 hectares in the municipality of Foggia. The plant’s technical area occupies 65 hectares, of which only 25 hectares are set aside for photovoltaic modules. The remaining land will be retained for agricultural use, with alfalfa grown amongst the solar-tracking structures. The project also includes a 25-hectare ecological corridor and 45 hectares of surrounding areas dedicated to olive trees, Mediterranean shrubs and other crops. The aim is to integrate energy production, the continuation of agricultural activity and landscape conservation.

Over the medium term, GV Energy’s 2026–2028 business plan aims to exceed 200 MW of installed capacity. In light of the growth already achieved, the Group considers this a conservative target and is confident that it may exceed the projected figure. Once fully operational, the Energy sector could contribute up to 40% of the SoFiGraf Group’s consolidated EBITDA, compared with the current 10%.

GV Energy grew out of SG Ambient, a company acquired in 2013 following a particularly successful project in Spilimbergo, in Friuli. Thanks to this project, an abandoned barracks was demolished and the site was redeveloped with a 10 MW ground-mounted solar farm, meeting the energy needs of around 5,000 homes. Over the two-year period 2024–2025, GV Energy’s portfolio expanded with the completion of a solar farm of approximately 4 MW in the province of Verona and a 9.2 MW plant in the province of Bologna, as well as a 9.1 MW project currently under construction in the province of Udine and a further 20 MW plant in the province of Treviso at an advanced stage of the authorisation process. The strategy involves selling electricity on the open market, without relying on new government incentives, whilst remaining open to future Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with large industrial consumers. The aim is to transform the Group’s experience in renewables into an autonomous, industrial and competitive energy platform, capable of becoming one of SoFiGraf’s new drivers of growth.