Sicily to build world's first solar power plant

The world's first solar power plant, which will yoke the power of the sun with gas, will go on stream on the sunny east coast of Sicily by 2009, if a deal signed by the Italian government this week goes according to plan.

The project is named Archimedes, after the famous resident of the nearby city of Syracuse. The existing gas-fired power plant on the site will be augmented by Archimedes, which should produce 5 megawatts of electricity, enough for 4,500 families.

Archimedes' trump card is the fact that it will produce solar energy 24 hours a day, not just when the sun is shining. The plant's battery of parabolic mirrors will focus the sun's rays on pipes, through which runs a saline liquid that can store heat up to 550C and retain it for hours.

The addition of the solar plant to the power station should significantly reduce the amount of gas burnt at the plant and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 7,300 tonnes.

"With Archimedes we intend to combine the best technology of today with that of tomorrow," said Sandro Fontecedro, director of the energy division of Enel, the formerly state-owned electricity company behind the project.

Archimedes is budgeted at €40m (£27m). "We are moving from the laboratory to the industrial phase," said Luigi Paganetto, the president of Enea, an agency specialising in alternative energy.