Photovoltaic Technology to Triple in Italy

The use of photovoltaic technology in Italy is forecast to have grown threefold by the end of next year, according to comments made by renewable energy analysts at the beginning of May.

Thanks to substantial financial boosts from a whole range of investors including world-famous car brand Ferrari, the implementation of photovoltaic technology in Italy has really taken off in the past two years. 

‘Photovoltaic’ is a combination of the words 'photo' (light) and 'voltaic' (electricity).  In essence, it refers to technology involving the transformation of solar energy into electricity.

At present, according to Italian power management group Gestore Servizi Elettrici (GSE), around 37,000 photovoltaic installations produce a total of 450 megawatts of electricity.

“If the current growth pace continues, we will see a total installed capacity of 800-900 megawatts  in 2009 and about 1,200-1,300 megawatts by the end of 2010”, GSE’s managing director, Gerardo Montanino, advised news agency Reuters.

Solar Power Technology: Italy

Montanino’s comments were made at a recent meeting on photovoltaic technology, a gathering at which prominent industry executives pointed to Italy as a potential world-leader in the field of photovoltaics.  Factors like the country’s plentiful supply of sunshine, a marked fall in the cost of solar panels and the issue of its traditional electricity prices exceeding those of all other European nations should mean that solar power technology becomes financially competitive with conventional power in 2010, they stated.

"Italy is the first large-scale market where it [grid parity] will happen”, solar panel market dominator Q-Cells’ chief executive, Anton Milner, advised the audience. 

“It is certainly going to be next year.”

The trend, he added, will be observable within private households at first, then commercial users, and finally across the span of wider industry.

After Italy, the next countries to have photovoltaic technology equalling conventional electricity in financial terms are likely to be the US, Spain and Germany, Milner added.

Photovoltaic Applications

One issue highlighted at the meeting was that of contrasting local laws, with some regions in Italy like Basilicata prohibiting photovoltaic applications of any kind, and others, like Calabria, permitting them, but only when local companies are involved in their construction. 

This, according to German photovoltaic firm Conergy’s chief executive, Dieter Ammer,  “...means lost opportunities for growth in Italy.”