Sun & Wind Energy 4/2010120

I t is the must-attend event for Italian and interna-tional business communities seeking to seize all the opportunities of the Italian PV market. The

11th Solarexpo in Verona (5-7th May 2010), the inter-national exhibition and conference on renewable energy and distributed generation, probably the most important branch event in Italy, will open under great expectations.

The Italian PV Summit that will take place two days before the opening ceremony in Verona will fo-cus essentially to the reductions that will affect Conto Energia, the feed-in tariff scheme which has been the key strategic condition to create the photovoltaics market in Italy.

Turbulent times

A long-running rumour has been running in the last few months, with the emerging fear that the new in-centive schemes will reduce the appeal of the PV sec-tor. The concerns regard not only the feed-in tariff scheme, but also the system of rules and laws in the building sector which, in theory, should follow EU Directive 20-20-20 in terms and conditions.

According to the Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane (GIFI), that, with Assosolare, makes up the national photovoltaics association, the Italian PV

DiverseItaly is an up-and-coming PV market. Its further

development will drastically depend on the currently

discussed reduction scheme of the feed-in tariffs. But

until now there have only been rumours and the process

to produce the final draft is still open.

Even Gestore dei Servizi Energetici cannot currently give any further information on the potential tariff reductions. Somehow or other, the allowance for the PV installation on the GSE headquarters in Rome is safe. Photo: GSE

Italy / solarexpophotovoltaIcs

rumours

Sun & Wind Energy 4/2010 121

KSE_AnzBruecke_A4_EN_mitStoerer.indd 1 18.03.2010 12:10:41 Uhr

photovoltaIcs

Sun & Wind Energy 4/2010122

Photovoltaics

S U N L I G H T + P E R F E C T E N E R G Y = Y O U S M I L E !

Perfectenergy GmbHTannenweg 8-10

53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany,Phone: +49(0) 22 41 234 250Fax: +49 (0) 22 41 234 25 10www.perfectenergy-gmbh.de

SOLAREXPO05./07. May 2010

Verona, Hall 7 No. C7.1

INTERSOLAR09./11. June 2010

Munich, Hall A6 No. 544

industry has planned investments of more than € 2.5 billion, and at least 3,000 new jobs were created in the sector in the last year. GIFI members complain about the delay in the development of the market accompanying Conto Energia in the new version .

This is a very delicate period: many informal drafts are circulating among people and companies involved in the sector and professionals can get nerv-ous as a result of this lack of detailed information and uncertainty.

During the Conferenza dell’Industria Solare - Italia 2010, hosted in Rome in February and organ-ized by German Solarpraxis, there were many foreign companies, mainly German, showing an increasing interest in investing in Italy. The principal concerns regard bureaucracy and the local banking sector still shy of investing in photovoltaic systems. For exam-ple, Solcontec International AG, a solar company based in Munich, decided to invest in Italy, with its market entry in late spring 2009, and the ambition to develop and realize from six to eight projects of be-tween 700 kW and 1 MW.

The challenges have been mostly related to the fact that every project needs to be totally financed, as clients are mostly small or medium-sized busi-nesses. Furthermore, projects have to meet all inves-tors’ and banks’ requirements – “bankability” – but this concept seems to be interpreted in different ways by bankers. The company decided to operate in the Marche region, central Italy, and quite soon had to realize that there are different authorisation pro-cesses in each province of the region, that there’s a

Source: GIFI

Source: GIFI

1st half year 2nd half year

[kW]Solar companies’ proposal

Official draft from government

Solar companies’ proposal

1 - 3 € 0.411 € 0.380 € 0.399

3 - 20 € 0.388 € 0.342 € 0.359

20 - 200 € 0.353 € 0.323 € 0.329

200 - 1000 € 0.355 € 0.314 € 0.320

1000 - 5000 € 0.351 € 0.302 € 0.308

> 5000 € 0.351 € 0.287 € 0.293

1st half year 2nd half year

[kW]Solar companies’ proposal

Official draft from government

Solar companies’ proposal

1 - 3 € 0.374 € 0.333 € 0.360

3 - 20 € 0.351 € 0.304 € 0.328

20 - 200 € 0.326 € 0.285 € 0.308

200 - 1000 € 0.314 € 0.266 € 0.298

1000 - 5000 € 0.313 € 0.257 € 0.288

> 5000 € 0.313 € 0.244 € 0.273

PV systems on buildings

PV systems on ground

STATE OF THE ART IN TECHNOLOGY

E.E.I. Equipaggiamenti Elettronici Industriali SrlViale dell’Industria, 37 - 36100 Vicenza - Italy

Tel. +39 0444 562988 - Fax. +39 0444 562373

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studiobrand.it

pubblicita ̀.indd 1 6-10-2009 15:12:33

lack of clear guidelines and that financing is a seri-ous bottleneck.

Despite all these constraints

Nevertheless, Italy is still considered a very good market because of its generous feed-in tariff scheme, one of the most generous in the world. But if the Berlusconi government modifies and reduces the

feed-in tariff by even more than what solar compa-nies expect, all this appeal can suddenly disappear, with serious consequences for a fragile economy such as the Italian one in these times.

The latest drafts circulating in these last few weeks talk about a reduction of the feed-in tariff by 20 % in 2011. The reduction should be made in three steps at least, in order to gradually reduce the incentives. It seems as if the most penalized PV installations would

AE-Photonics Italia, Sunstar03 and Trina Solar completed an 881 kW PV plant in Castronovo, Italy, in February. Photo: AE-Photonics

photovoltaIcs Italy / solarexpo

Sun & Wind Energy 4/2010124

Generally speaking, GIFI agrees with the reduc-tion scheme, but it would like to have it gradually and only in two steps per year, instead of the three pro-posed, but, more importantly, the solar associations need reduction schemes with clear and stable condi-tions.

The draft seems to guarantee good incentives for concentrated photovoltaic systems (size up to 250 MW) and those integrated with innovative elements, al-though operating a reduction up to 35 % in 2011 for in-centives applied to greenhouse PV systems. However, solar companies believe that these installations, as well as those with clear undoubted architectural value, should be considered as innovative and should benefit from the top tariff.

The major concerns regard the banking sector: it’s traditionally a sector that looks for stability and doesn’t like uncertainty and ambiguous rules. To make things more complicated, at the end of March there will be regional elections in Italy, and the gov-ernment in charge is totally concentrating on holding up decisions which are difficult to manage during these weeks, and the feed-in tariff scheme appears to be such a decision. This fact demonstrates a cer-tain lack of interest by politicians, while other thorny problems are getting faster answers and solutions right now, because they are considered as electoral-ly valuable. All the solar companies, through their national associations, are trying to put some pres-sure on the government, in order to avoid paralysis in investment as well as in installing PV systems, par-ticularly the biggest ones.

GSE, Gestore dei Servizi Energetici, is the implementing body in charge of managing the feed-in premium scheme, qualifying plants, conducting verifi-cations and granting the support. Its work is very well

MW 7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

2006 2007 2008 2009e 2010e 2011e 2012e 2013e

Annual market [MW]Moderate scenario

13 42 258400 600 750 950 1,250

Policy-driven scenario 500 800 1,100 1,400 1,600

Projected cumulative PV power installed [MW]

Moderate scenario50 92 350

750 1,350 2,100 3,050 4,300

Policy-driven scenario 850 1,660 2,750 4,150 5,750

Source: EPIA

Italian PV market forecast

be ground solar PV systems. According to Quotidiano Energia, which has anticipated the official draft de-fined by the Ministry for Economic Development , the new Conto Energia in 2011 should be available until the level of 1,500 MW of PV systems installed is reached. But for all the market players, this result should definitely be reached in 2011. The same draft is proposing a general reduction of around 8 to 10 % per year, while GIFI and Assosolare would like to ob-tain a more gradual reduction, around 4 % per year.

Gert Gremes, GIFI President, thinks that it’s ex-tremely necessary in this moment to take a clear and fast decision in order to nurture and sustain an in-dustrial sector that, despite the economic crisis, was able to invest in 2009 and reached 60 % more than 2008 (580 MW installed in 2009 versus 338 MW in 2008, source: GIFI). But until now there have only been rumours and the process to produce the final draft is still open. For financial investors and compa-nies this period of uncertainty is the worst situation to face. Nobody can take decisions for investing and annual budgets are frozen waiting for reassuring news.

Gradual reduction scheme

According to ANIE, the National Electronic Industries Association, the Italian PV industry can play a key role in economic development, hence the new incen-tive schemes have to guarantee future development with a gradual reduction of the feed-in tariff. Solar companies would like a new Conto Energia able to give incentives up to 8,000 MW being installed be-tween 2011 and 2015 and other 15,000 MW by 2020. Lower figures would mean a serious dent in this growing sector.

Sun & Wind Energy 4/2010 125

Maxi–Power compactStecaGrid 9000 3phThree-phase, durable and powerful!

The advantage of three-phase feed-in is

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At the same time, this kind of feed-in cares

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are widely abandoned.

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current of 32 A, all commonly available

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Verona, Italy | May 5 - 7, 2010

hall 4, booth G4.2

We are looking forward to your visit!

Source: EPIA

photovoltaIcs Italy / solarexpo

Sun & Wind Energy 4/2010126

respected by companies and professionals involved in the solar sector, and the web site managed direct-ly by GSE provides all kinds of information (incen-tives included) on each of the more than 60,000 PV systems already installed in Italy. As a demonstra-tion of the delicate period, GSE cannot give any fur-ther information on potential tariff reductions.

Acumen required

The 25 % rate cut for large systems, which has been proposed by the Ministry for Economic Development, would cause a 40 % reduction in the internal rate of re-turn (IRR) for photovoltaic projects with respect to 2010. The IRR would therefore be below the critical limit of the cost of debt, thereby making it no longer ad-vantageous for large investors to risk investing in pho-tovoltaics. This would significantly weaken an impor-tant segment of the industry, which is the only one ca-pable of making a significant contribution to achieving Italy’s renewable energy source objectives with re-gards to the European Community.

There are two points which have not been ac-cepted by the government, despite the efforts from the solar companies association to consider them at the top of the agenda. The first is the confirmation of the premium for the replacement of asbestos, with which the old energy budget was able to mobilize en-ergy companies in this sector to help to resolve the historic problem of asbestos in countless roofs in Italy . The second is the premium for solar greenhouses , a topic which is the basis of an entire-

photovoltaIcs

Sun & Wind Energy 4/2010 127

Verona, Italy

ly new business model for the increasingly energy-consuming agri-food sector and, in the middle term, is capable of revitalizing the agricultural sector, es-pecially in southern Italy.

A leaked draft version of the proposals obtained by Reuters said that it would cut the feed-in tariff gradually by up to 20 % in 2011, before cutting it by 6 % a year in 2012 and 2013. Whatever the decision, the Italian government should keep in mind that the solar industry can be a growing sector, able to ab-sorb unemployed workers coming from other indus-trial sectors deeply in crisis. A gradually reduction of the feed-in tariff scheme, and not deep cuts as oc-curred in Spain, is the only way to protect this young sector and, at the same time, attract investments more related to the real economy and not speculative ones.

Indeed, if Berlusconi’s government wants to go on in implementing the national nuclear power plan, it’s better to sustain the energy mix at a national lev-el, including renewable energies, instead of jeopar-dizing, with unacceptable feed-in tariff reduction, the Italian photovoltaic industry. It could be a boomer-ang with unpredictable results.� Cristina�Barbero

Further information:

www.solarexpo.com

During the Conferenza dell’Industria Solare - Italia 2010 there were many foreign companies showing an increasing interest in investing in Italy. Photo: Solarpraxis