At the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily's ancient city of Catania, utility Enel has begun work on a giant factory with the ambition of helping to end China's dominance of the solar market and to galvanise Italy's under-developed south.

The project to expand the capacity of Enel's (ENEI.MI) 3Sun plant 15-fold is especially relevant as the European Union seeks to speed up the switch to renewables and end its dependence on Russian gas.