Construction at the €125m ($166.7m) suite of projects is expected to be finished by the end of 2010, with FRV intending to continue on as owner and operator.

Early last year Spain’s Fotowatio paid $19.7m for San Francisco-based MMA Renewable Ventures, one of the largest solar developers in the US. The combined company, rebranded as FRV, is now owned by General Electric Financial Services, Landon Group and Qualitas Venture.

FRV recently splashed out €24m building out five 1MW solar installations in Italy’s Puglia province, with construction currently under way at another 10MW project in Lazio.

FRV is part of a growing chorus of solar developers rushing into the Italian market, which has grown to become Europe’s second largest on the back of its generous feed-in tariff and excellent sunlight. US module maker SunPower recently paid $277m for solar developer SunRay, which has a 1.2-gigawatt project pipeline centred around the Italian market.

Italy recently passed the landmark 1-gigawatt mark of installed solar capacity, with the sector now believed to employ 20,000 people.

BP Solar, which has manufactured solar panels since the 1970s, is undergoing a sweeping restructuring programme in an attempt to win back business lost to low-cost Asian players over the past few years. BP recently acknowledged that its alternative energy division lost $183,000 an hour through 2009, and announced the closure of its solar-module factory in Maryland.

BP Solar chief executive Reyad Fezzani says the company intends to move heavily into the downstream end of the solar market, which is far less vulnerable to outsourcing. He says 70% of the jobs in the solar industry are in system design, installation and maintenance.

BP recently completed 17 solar rooftop installations for Wal Mart in California, as well as the largest rooftop installation in the US, at a FedEx building in New Jersey.