Italgen, 60 million plan to exceed 160 MW

Italgen continues to expand its perimeter: the investee company of the Pesenti family's holding company Italmobiliare, which deals with renewable energy, has added two hydroelectric plants in the province of Bergamo to its portfolio, with a total installed capacity of around 4 MW, through the acquisition of 100% of the owner company Alben. It is also close to completing the construction of two new photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of 15 MW, with connection expected by the end of the year: in Chignolo d'Isola (Bergamo) and in Borgonovo Val Tidone (Piacenza), near the Capitelli ham factory. These operations will bring Italgen by the end of the year to 102 MW of installed production capacity (70% hydro and 30% solar), from the current 83 MW; a doubling in five years, given that in 2020 the company had a portfolio of 57 MW.

In 2025, it also completed the modernisation of the historic Dezzo hydroelectric power plant in Val di Scalve (Bergamo), with a capacity of more than 3 MW, rebuilt by Italgen in 1926.

"Investments in 2025 alone amounted to EUR 25 million," says Managing Director and General Manager Luca Musicco: "From 2021 the total figure reached EUR 80 million, including M&A, revamping and new solar parks. And our plan is to continue investing 20 million per year in the next three years, for a total of 60. The goal is to double the current installed capacity to 160 MW in 2028. There are two lines of development: diversification of sources, from hydroelectricity we entered photovoltaics in 2022, and geographical diversification. We were focused on the Alpine arc, now with hydro we have arrived in Tuscany and our solar parks are in Puglia, Marche, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont'.

From 2021 to 2024, Italgen expanded its portfolio from 17 to 30 hydroelectric derivations and built six new photovoltaic plants. Looking ahead, the company is also looking at other technologies: 'We are familiar with wind technology, having had plants abroad in the past, and we have a project but it is not the priority,' says Musicco. 'More interesting is the sector of storage systems: integrated in the Piacenza solar plant linked to the Capitelli ham factory, we will also build a battery to cover night-time electricity consumption, and we will then consider expanding the storage park if the company changes to electric the ovens for cooking hams, which are now gas-fired. These are interesting projects with high potential. On the other hand, as far as utility scale projects are concerned, designed to balance the national electricity system, we are working on a project in the embryonic phase in the Centre-South area with the aim of participating in next year's auctions of the Macse (storage futures market, ed.)'.

Italgen was founded in the early 1900s within the Pesenti family as a hydroelectric company dedicated to supplying energy to the group's cement plants. It is a historic holding that entered the direct perimeter of Italmobiliare in 2016, after the sale of Italcementi to Heidelberg Materials. Strategically, it then proceeded to divest its assets abroad to focus on Italy, and later invested in the creation of a remote control platform for plants, focusing on automation and sensor technology, and building its own operations centre in Villa di Serio (Bergamo). In a period of rising energy prices, it then began to support companies in decarbonisation: since 2022, more than 30 industrial clients, including L'Oréal and Wiit, have signed a Ppa (power purchase agreement) with Italgen.