Italy changes solar FITs May 9, 2011
Posted by Laura Arnold in Feed-in Tariffs (FiT), Uncategorized.Tags: Craig Morris, Italian feed-in tariff
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Editor’s Note: This article from Craig Morris is a follow-up on an earlier post entitled, Abound Solar Wants Italian Sun; Will Italian Government Extention of Current Feed-in Tariff Impact Indiana? Craig Morris and I are both members of the Alliance for Renewable Energy Steering Committee. Last week during our monthly telephone conference call I asked if anyone knew the outcome of this pending decision by the Italian government. Craig Morris obliged with this post on Renewables International. Thanks for the update, Craig! Laura Ann Arnold
Original article: http://www.renewablesinternational.net/italy-changes-solar-fits/150/510/30890/
The changes were both highly anticipated and long in coming, but last Thursday [05/05/2011] the Council of Ministers adopted a new decree for photovoltaics. The reductions are yet another success story for feed-in tariffs, whose purpose has always been twofold: the widespread deployment of renewables, and bringing down cost.
On Thursday Italian ministers adopted a degree that would cut solar feed-in tariffs by between 22 and 30 percent in 2011, by 23 to 45 percent in 2012, and by 10 to 45 percent in 2013 depending on how much is actually installed. A ceiling has also been imposed depending on system size to prevent speculation: one megawatt on rooftops and 200 kilowatts foreground-mounted systems according to Reuters, which also explains that one goal is to limit the cost of solar feed-in tariffs at 6 to 7 billion euros by the end of 2016, when roughly 23 gigawatts is to have been installed.
According to a report at PV Tech (which includes a chart of specific rates), there is now to be a monthly degression, which could cause a headache for developers, but those who can get their projects completed by August 31 will reportedly still be eligible for the previous tariffs. Interestingly, PV Tech also reports that Italy has come up with a new way of approaching the “domestic content” issue: a five percent bonus is paid if 60 percent of the investment cost comes from within the EU – not from within Italy. Finally, PV Tech writes that Conto Energia IV stipulates that grid operators have 30 days to connect completed arrays.
Reuters cites a number of firms and investors who are not pleased by the cuts, one of which even plans to sue the Italian government for losses stemming from the changes, but not everyone agrees. For instance, Germany’s Photon Magazine argued recently that Italian feed-in tariffs for solar are too high in comparison to Germany, especially in light of the much greater insulation conditions in Italy. The limit on project size will also help ensure that the market is not gobbled up by a small number of large corporate investors. And PV Tech quotes Jeffrey’s International, which says that the new feed-in tariffs are “more positive for the solar industry” than its prior estimates.
Italy has become the world’s second-largest market for photovoltaics behind Germany, and the goal of 23 gigawatts by 2016 remains ambitious. As Renewables International recently reported, Italy has probably already met its photovoltaics target for 2020 at 8,000 megawatts. In comparison, the United States – which has more than five times as many inhabitants as Italy and per capita power consumption nearly 4 times greater – installed less than 500 megawatts last year. Italy will obviously remain a gigawatt market over the next five years, and to match that performance on a per capita consumption basis, the US would have to install nearly 20 times as much – around 20,000 megawatts per year. In fact, market researchers at Solarbuzz recently estimated that the photovoltaics pipeline has “now soared past 12 gigawatts” – but apparently for the next five years according to the chart in the announcement, not per year.
Solarbuzz says that “the PV industry is facing the effects of large cuts in feed-in tariffs across Europe,” but that the Request for Proposal process in the US is making the country “one of the most promising growth markets over the next 24 months.” That’s true, but a comparison of feed-in tariffs in Germany and Italy with RFPs in the US also clearly shows that the US will have a hard time keeping up with PV growth in Italy and Germany in absolute terms (not to mention per capita consumption). Furthermore, the US seems unable to bring the costs down without feed-in tariffs. Solarbuzz writes that “the largest US projects are now being completed in the range of $3-4 per watt,” but that price only makes the largest systems in sunny deserts in the US competitive with systems smaller than 100 kilowatts in cloudy Germany (Renewables International reported).
Although the full text of Conto Energia IV has yet to be published in Italy’s Gazette, it has been made available online at the Industry Ministry’s website in Italian. The decree becomes law once it is published in the Gazette, and the law is expected to take effect on June 1. (Craig Morris)
Abound Solar Wants Italian Sun; Will Italian Government Extention of Current Feed-in Tariff Impact Indiana? May 3, 2011
Posted by Laura Arnold in Feed-in Tariffs (FiT), Uncategorized.Tags: Abound Solar, cadmium-telluride solar panels, Indiana solar manufacturing, Italian feed-in tariff, Mark Chen
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On Friday, the government is supposed to approve an extension of the current feed-in tariff policy – which was originally to end in June – until this August. So what does it mean for one of the hottest markets in the world? Despite anticipated cuts, the country remains sought-after by manufacturers and developers.
“Even the most pessimistic analyst will say this year Italy will still be 3-5 gigawatts,” said Mark Chen, director of marketing at Abound Solar. “Let’s say 3 gigawatts, and that’s still larger than the U.S. market.”
Abound Solar, a Colorado maker of cadmium-telluride solar panels, announced this week the signing of distribution agreements with Italian firms Thesan and DW Europe. Thesan and DW are both distributors and integrators, and Thesan in particular has designed its own mounting systems for solar panels, Chen said. Thesan is set to showcase a solar electric system design pairing Abound Solar’s panels with its own racking at the Solarexpo.
Thesan and DW Europe also have each bought solar panels in “single-digit megawatts” from Abound Solar since the start of this year, Chen said.
Italy also has been a key market for companies such as SunPower, who just announced a plan to sell a 60 percent stake to French oil and gas giant, Total, whose offer includes a $1 billion credit over five years to help fund SunPower’s power plant development business globally, among other things. SunPower bought an Italian project developer in 2010 and announced in January this year that it had built 85 megawatts of projects in that country.
Abound is among the thin-film startups who hope to expand their manufacturing operations quickly to compete in a market where crystalline silicon remains the overwhelmingly dominant technology. The need for huge capital to build factories has prompted companies large and small to turn to government or well-funded partners for help.
Chen said the Italian market – and Europe overall – remains attractive because its feed-in tariff policy puts a premium on ultra thin solar panels that can be integrated into the roof to appear less obtrusive. Thin films tend to be slimmer than silicon panels, which are roughly 6 times thicker, making thin film a more attractive option for building-integrated applications, Chen said.
“It has to do with the aesthetics and maintaining the traditional image of Italian villas and towns,” Chen said. “You have traditional tile rooftops. If you don’t have integration, then the first things you see are blue and black silicon cells not orange tiles.”
Some silicon solar panel makers, such as Suntech Power, however, have rolled out products for the building-integrated market.
Abound Solar has snagged a $400 million federal loan to help build 775 megawatts of factories in Colorado and Indiana. The company shipped about 30 megawatts of solar panels in 2010 and expects to produce close to 60 megawatts in 2011, Chen said. The company is in the process of doubling its existing, 65 megawatts of annual production capacity. When the new production equipment is up and running, the company believes it can cut manufacturing cost down to 90 cents per watt.
