Athens, November 14, 2017 - Greece’s new opera house built by Salini Impregilo, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, is up for another prize, this time a European Solar Award from the European Association for Renewable Energy (Eurosolar), the latest recognition for the innovative way it uses its roof to generate electricity for its daily activities.

The roof – better known as the canopy – is the Group’s master stroke. Although its design had discouraged other construction companies from bidding for the job years ago, Salini Impregilo took up the challenge to make it into a giant solar panel.

Working closely with the center’s star architect, Renzo Piano, our Group painstakingly produced and installed more than 5,000 panels across the canopy’s 10,000 square-metre surface. Enough electricity is generated by the panels to make the center self-sufficient.

Such has been the success of the project since its completion last year that it received platinum – or highest – certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

Its engineering complexity also saw Salini Impregilo win last year a Global Best Project award from the influential U.S. industry magazine, Engineering News-Record (ENR).

The latest prize will be given to the Renzo Piano Building Workshop by Eurosolar, a German non-government organization that promotes renewable energy.

Eurosolar describes the centre, which also houses the national library, as a “strong symbol for ecological sustainability and the potential of renewable energy, integrated in a building of cultural life, setting new standards in architectural requirements.