Etrion will own the solar PV power plants, and SunPower will design, construct and provide operations and maintenance services.

Marco Northland, Etrion's CEO, says: "The two, 5 MW sites in Brindisi and Mesagne are part of our internal portfolio and once again demonstrate our team's development and execution capability.”

SunPower is installing its SunPower® Tracker technology at the Italian sites.

The 10 MW solar PV plants are expected to produce 17 GWh and €6 million of earnings to Etrion before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) per year.

Construction of the solar PV project is targeted to begin by the end of November 2010.

The first electricity sales from the project under the Italian feed-in-tariff regime are expected during the third quarter of 2011.