At the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily's ancient city of Catania, utility Enel has begun work on a giant factory with the ambition of helping to end China's dominance of the solar market and to galvanize Italy's underdeveloped south.
The project to expand the capacity of Enel's 3Sun plant fifteenfold is especially relevant as the European Union seeks to speed up the switch to renewables and end its dependence on Russian gas.
It also has support from Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who took charge in October, and has pledged to boost renewables in the south to try to tackle decades of underdevelopment.
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