By Paul Gipe, edited by Renewable Energy Focus

The vote is a stinging rebuke to Conservative Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who had hoped to revive the country's dormant nuclear industry.

Italians voted in a 1987 referendum to prevent new nuclear power plants. Subsequently, the government decided in 1988 to phase out existing reactors.

Berlusconi conceded defeat saying "addio" to nuclear and noting that the country must now develop its renewable energy resources.

The Italian referendum follows Germany's proposal to close all its reactors by 2022 and Switzerland's decision to phase out its nuclear plants as well.

As Craig Morris points out at Renewables International, Italy is the world's largest industrial economy to not use nuclear power for the past 14 years.

Italy sets 23 GW solar PV target

Meanwhile, the Italian Government has adopted detailed new tariffs for solar photovoltaic systems (PV) targeting 23 GW by 2017.

The new target supersedes the previous 8 GW target that was likely to be surpassed this year.

At the end of 2010, Italy officially had installed a total solar PV capacity of 3 GW. There may have been as much as 4 GW of additional capacity that was installed in 2010, but the paperwork has not yet been processed. Consequently, there could be 7 GW of solar PV now operating in Italy.

For comparison, Germany has a current installed capacity of 17 GW. There is about 2.2 GW of solar PV installed in the USA.

Italy is currently the world's second largest market for solar PV, following Germany. The new policy ensures that Italy will likely maintain this position for the foreseeable future.

Solar potentially 10% of supply

Under Italian conditions, the new solar PV target of 23 GW could generate more than 30 TWh annually by 2017.

Italy consumed 319 TWh of electricity in 2010.

If the Italian solar industry reaches the capacity target of 23 GW, it alone will be meeting nearly 10% of the nation's electricity supply.

Wind energy currently provides nearly 5% of supply.

New solar PV tariffs remain attractive

While the trade press has emphasised that the new policy ‘cuts’ the existing tariffs dramatically, Italian solar PV tariffs will remain among the highest in Europe relative to its more intense insolation.

Though the programme in Italy differs markedly from that in Germany, some of the new tariffs introduced can be compared to those now used in Germany.

For example, Italy's new tariffs for rooftops in the size class from 3 kW to 20 kW can be compared to the German rooftop size class of:

Germany receives approximately three-fourths the insolation of Italy. Thus, current German tariffs would be reduced by an equivalent amount in Italy to provide the same return on investment as in Germany, everything else being equal.

There is a further complication. Quarto Conto Energia, or the fourth energy policy, includes payment of the wholesale rate on top of the feed-in tariff for the remainder of 2011 and for all of 2012. Recently this amounted to an additional 0.07/kWh that's not shown in the tariffs.

Italy's new tariffs remain at least 50% greater than the current tariffs in Germany.

This feed-in tariff news update is partially supported by An Environmental Trust and David Blittersdorf in cooperation with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The views expressed are those of Paul Gipe and are not necessarily those of the sponsors.

Paul Gipe
661 325 9590, 661 472 1657 mobile
pgipe@igc.org, www.wind-works.org