Solar May Hit 5-10 Pct of Italy Power Mix by 202O
Date: 05-Sep-07
Country: ITALY
Author: Svetlana Kovalyova
"Photovoltaic energy may cover 5-10 percent of global power
demand in the future," said Gert Gremes, chairman of GIFI, a
body grouping 45 companies in Italy that are active in
photovoltaic energy, which turns sunlight in power.
Italy, which lags behind European leaders like Germany in
developing green energy, aims to catch up with Europe's efforts
to fight global climate change and passed a law in February to
boost incentives for photovoltaic energy generation.
"We hope that in Italy too it will happen by 2020, if all
the existing incentives are developed," Gremes told Reuters at
the European photovoltaic energy conference in Milan.
The long-awaited law has scrapped limits on annual
incentives to install new solar modules, boosted subsidies for
households to put solar batteries on roofs to generate power and
obliged newly built houses to have integrated solar systems.
Sector experts at the conference said the law would trigger
an explosive growth of photovoltaic energy generation in sun-lit
Italy and draw billions of dollars in investments as generation
costs -- currently about double the cost of traditional
fuel-fired generation -- were set to fall.
Gremes said Italian sector players needed additional
incentives to reach a target, set by the law, of 3,000 megawatts
of photovoltaic energy capacity installed by 2016, up from the
tiny total of 50 MW installed by the end of 2006,
"The law has an enormous potential. A 1,200 MW capacity for
which incentives are already guaranteed can be installed within
a year," he said.
More money for boosting photovoltaic energy may come from a
special 3.5 billion euro (US$4.76 billion) fund, which was set up
to finance renewable energy withpart of the proceeds from
electricity bills but has been largely used to finance power
generation by oil refineries, Gremes said.
He said solar energy generation may reach grid parity, or
competitiveness of prices with traditional generation, within
10-15 year in Italy as solar costs were set to fall while oil
prices were likely to rise. This is a goal keenly watched by
investors.