Italy is the second solar market worldwide

These figures were presented today by Gerardo Montanino, Managing Director of GSE (Gestore Servizi Energetici, Italian green energy incentives management agency) during the fourth edition of the “ITALIAN PV SUMMIT, roadmap to grid parity”, taking place in Verona, with over 450 registered participants.

The Italian renewable energies market grew from a 18.3 GW power in 2000 (91% of which derived from hydroelectric power plants) to 41.3 G in 2011, with a 125% increase. 75% of this growth (23 GW) was achieved just in the last four years. The major player was the PV sector, providing 31% of the power from clean resources by the end of 2011, while the contribution of the hydroelectric fell to 43%. If in 2000 the electricity generation from renewable sources was 51 Terawatt-hour (TWh), in 2011 the amount reached 84 TWh: 33 TWh electricity generation almost completely derived from wind power, PV solar and bio-energies (today 38% of the total).
In 2011 Italy installed 9,300 MW PV power, taking into account also the 3,500 MW plants included in the so-called ‘salva Alcoa’ decree (built by the end of 2010 and connected the network by June 30th 2011), that benefited from the high incentives according to the 2nd ‘Conto Energia’ (Feed-in Tariff).
With over 340,000 plants in Italy the electricity generation from PV is today estimated in 11 TWh/year and is constantly growing. Only five years ago it was really infinitesimal (0.039 TWh). An amount that, according to the Regulatory Authority for Electricity and Gas (Aeeg) and several analysts, produced new effects on the electricity system: before the PV boom of the last year on the Power Exchange there were two price peaks, one during the day at 11 in the morning, and one in the evening, at 18-20. Now the 11 am peak almost disappeared (even if the evening peak is strangely very much higher). The reason is that the PV, like the other renewable sources, producing at zero marginal costs (we don’t need more fuel to produce one more kWh), during the day is in competition with the traditional power plants and is able to keep low the energy price. It is the peak shaving effect, which in 2011 allowed to save 400 million euro.

Coming back to the explosion of the PV installations in Italy, the Managing Director of GSE underscored that today in Italy almost 95% of the Italian towns has at least a PV plant in its territory, in comparison with only 31% in 2007.
The region with the highest installed power is Puglia (17.1% of the total), followed by Lombardia (10.3%), Emilia Romagna, Veneto, Piemonte. In terms of number of plants Lombardia is first (14.7%), then there are Veneto (13.6%) and Emilia Romagna.
Montanino explained that 49% of the Italian total installed power is on the ground, 41% is on roofs, 6% on shelters and greenhouses, and then there is a residual 4%. In terms of technologies, 70% of the modules is in polycrystalline silicon, 23% in mono-crystalline silicon and 7% is in thin films. Almost 65% of the PV plants power is connected to the manufacturing sector, while the percentage for agriculture and services is 13% each and for residential is 9%. Almost 89% of the power is owned by companies, only 8.5 belongs to individuals.

One of the benefits of the previous editions of the ‘Conto Energia’ (Feed-in Tariffs) is the possibility to replace the asbestos on the roofs with the PV. Thanks to this specific bonus 1,340 PV MW (almost 16,350 plants) have already been generated, with a 12.7 million square meters surface. The top three regions are Lombardia, Emilia Romagna and Piemonte. The cost of the bonus is estimated at 45.8 million euro.
For the achievement of the annual amount of 6 billion euro of PV incentives, which should be the starting point of the 5th ‘Conto Energia’ (Feed-in Tariff) now under discussion at the Unified State-Region Conference, the GSE foresees a date between August and December. According to the draft of the 5th ‘Conto Energia’, the new bill should become effective the following month.

The detailed program of the ITALIAN PV SUMMIT is online at: www.italianpvsummit.com

Leader companies like LG, Solsonica, Fimer, Aros, Yingli Solar, Conergy, Siemens and UniCredit are sponsors of the ITALIAN PV SUMMIT, while Epia, Seia, Apvia and Eurobat are the supporter associations.