This week, Gestore dei servizi energetici S.p.A (GES), the publicly-owned company promoting and supporting renewable energy sources in Italy, has published details of grid-connected PV systems registered by GES in Italy. These figures show that the new energy law has clearly been effective in encouraging PV development.
Under the previous feed-in tariff established by the earlier energy law (“Conto Energia”), 164 MW of PV were installed around Italy. However, the new energy law means that at 1 January 2010, Italy now has 643 MW of grid-connected PV arrays. This compared very favourably with the figure at June 2009 of 494 MW, distributed across approximately 33,682 installations, and shows that while the Italian PV market is not booming, it is continuing to grow rapidly.
Under the new energy law, the Italian government has established a feed-in tariff which varies depending on the type of installation, from 0.35€ for non-building integrated arrays of more than 20 kW to o.48€ for building-integrated arrays of less than 3 kW in 2009. Although this variable feed-in tariff, which is valid for the first 20 years of operation, clearly favours small producers and is lower than the previous one, it is still considerable succulent. This, combined with Italy’s excellent solar resource should see the amount of capacity installed continue to rise throughout 2010.
This growth will be further stimulated by the Italian government’s positive approach to PV. In March 2009, the Ministry of the Environment, Sea and Land passed a Decree affecting roof-mounted PV systems of up to 200 kW, increasing the feed-in tariff up to 30% in those provinces in the North of Italy with lower levels of solar radiation in an attempt to encourage PV growth in these areas.
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