Steel producer Acciaierie Venete SpA has entered a five-year agreement to purchase power from a new unsubsidized solar photovoltaic plant in Italy.

The plant, currently under construction, is expected to start supplying electricity by the end of this year, according to a Jan. 13 release.

The power output — which will be managed by energy trader DXT Commodities SA — will be purchased at a fixed price by Acciaierie Venete for use at its factories, to cover itself from the risk of possible power price swings.

"It is important to highlight how the interest on long term power purchase agreements is increasingly raising within the Italian industrial sector," said Mattia Giussani, senior power originator at DXT, "and this will definitely provide a boost to the construction of new renewable plants both in Italy and elsewhere."

In September 2019, DXT entered into another deal to purchase power from an under-construction 53-MW solar power plant in Italy.