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Research on photovoltaic potential in Italy

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Rome, June 13th 2018

Installed capacity of Solar PV (Photovoltaic) in Italy has an average age of 6 years for utility scale plants, and 8-10 years for smaller scale. Despite being still in early ages, the PV productivity is subject to decay and new capacity to be added should not limit to cover the loss in energy production but really give a meaningful contribution to reaching the country's 2030 targets.

A research conducted by Althesys and developed in collaboration with Enel Foundation, GSE and the major Italian players in the renewable energy sector has shown that the development of the photovoltaic fleet is a great opportunity for Italy. The economic return deriving from the relaunch and development of large-scale plants amounts to approximately 11 billion euro. Moreover, the report estimates the involvement of almost 20,000 new employees (both direct and indirect) and a reduction of 12.8 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions.

In order to achieve these goals, Italy should start a process of renovation – revamping and repowering – of the utility scale photovoltaic park, which represents less than 1% of total plants but more than 43% of the installed capacity. Through revamping, Italy can recover up to 4,000 MW by 2030, whereas and additional 1,700 MW of photovoltaic capacity can be added through repowering.  

The research also points out the need to set up conditions to develop new plants such as the definition of tools for the classification and the identification of "preferential areas", a regulatory and market environment suitable for the PPA, and indirect support tools such as super amortization and tax credit. 

Read more about the research here (in Italian).