he return to power of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi means in part that the pro-business agenda he set forth in the election campaign can move forward. But even before his re-election in the spring, investors were announcing new projects and expansions in both legacy industries and the industries of tomorrow and today, such as alternative energy production.
      Fiat Powertrain Technologies, on the legacy side, is revamping a transmissions manufacturing plant in Verrone, in the Biella province, that will entail a US$737-million investment between fixed assets and R&D costs. The city, province and Region of Piedmont have been working since January to streamline the process of moving forward with the expansion, particularly given the project's potential economic impact. The 20-million-sq.-ft. (1.87-million-sq.-m.) plant will be able to produce about 800,000 transmissions by 2012 at full employment of 1,100 workers – which is 600 more than work at the facility at present.
      Even more significant in terms of job creation is a new plant in the Campania region, in southern Italy, for Digital Display Devices (DDD), a maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. The European Commission in April agreed to make $285 million of aid available to DDD for construction of a plant that will produce thin-film transistor-LCD modules for flat screens for televisions and computer monitors. The plant, the first one in Europe to make TFT-LCD panels, will create about 1,000 jobs in an area that could use capital investment. Unemployment is high in Campania, making it eligible for regional aid for large investment projects from the European Union. Overall project cost was estimated in April at about $1.4 billion.       The Province of Padova (Padua) in northeastern Italy is the location of a new factory for making photovoltaic solar modules and components being built by SOLON SpA, the Italian subsidiary of Germany's SOLON AG. The plant, in Carmignano di Brenta, will have an annual capacity of 120 MW initially, 150 by the end of 2008. About 200 new jobs will be created at the $40-million project.
      A bioethanol plant being built in Tortona, in the Piedmont Region, addresses recent criticism of the fuel as being responsible in part for rising food prices worldwide. This plant, being built by Mossi & Ghisolfi, will use cellulose feedstock rather than corn and other food commodities, and will be one of the first so-called second-generation bioethanol plants in the world.