Enel plans to build a solar panel factory in the United States as part of its plans to bulk up its renewable energy business in North America, its green power boss said. Europe's biggest utility is looking to scale up its 3SUN factory in southern Italy to 3 gigawatts in 2024 and develop a new generation of panels to compete with Asia, Enel Green Power CEO Salvatore Bernabei said on Tuesday.

He said Europe might need 30 GW per year of capacity in this regard but added other countries like the United States and India had more ambitious targets."Our idea is to think of a possible copy and paste of this factory to other markets, like the United States," he said.