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Drafts of the Italian fifth energy bill – Quinto Conto Energia – have been circulated over the internet. It states the solar PV budget will be reduced to €500 million and all installations over 3kW would need to be registered with relevant authorities. Priority will be offered to plants built in areas in need of regeneration or those built less intrusively. It is expected to come into force in July 2012.
This may come as a surprise to many due to the report published by Reuters earlier this month stating ENEL Green Power predicts Italy reaching only between 3,000 to 4,000MW in 2012.
According to leaked reports, the ministry of energy and economy have limited spending to €10 million for BIPV projects, €10 million for CPV installations and €80 million for PV plants.
The Solar Energy Association commented, “The Italian solar PV industry has, in these years of crisis and in contrast to other markets, grown and created hundreds of jobs. We call for intervention to put a stop to indiscriminate collapse of this industry.”
The current draft being circulated can be found here.
Update:
Digitimes has reported the new program, effective June 2012, will include an installation subsidy cap of 400MW per year. It is also claimed that if installations in the first half of 2012 in Italy reaches 2GW, once the new policy is in effect, the Italian solar market is likely to halt all installations in the second quarter of 2012.
