Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Reuters has reported that the Italian government plans to reduce the cuts it previously announced to solar incentives, according to the latest draft of a decree obtained on February 22. The decree states that for large solar plants of over 1MW, the proposed tariff as of January 1, 2011, is €0.313/kWh compared with the €0.298 /kWh in the previous version. The €0.313/kWh tariff is expected to decline to €0.2642/kWh at the end of 2011. The tariffs will then fall by 6% a year in 2012 and 2013.

Puglia, south-east Italy is the site for the new solar power plant that is to be constructed by Iberdrola Ingeniería y Construcción following the company’s successful bid for the title of developer for the project. The 8MW facility will cost in the region of €27 million, which is being financed by Unicredit Mediocredito Centrale and commissioned by Pugliasolar.

Consistent with its announced plans for further small-scale power plants in Italy, TerniEnergia has plans to build a 1MW PV power plant in the Apulia region at a cost of approximately €3 million. The plant will be owned by TRP-PVE, an Italian-Chinese joint venture company.

Solar wafer manufacturer LDK Solar has entered into a project development agreement with Italian renewable energy company Uni Land S.p.A. for the construction of 20MW of PV plants throughout 2010 and 2011. LDK also announced that it has sold the 1MW mono-axis Apulia plant to Uni Land for €5 million.

Since announcing the project in September, SunPower has finished the first phase of Italy’s largest solar power plant in Montalto di Castro. Construction of the €120 million, 24MW plant was completed in eight months and was connected to the grid on November 30, several weeks ahead of schedule. The Montalto di Castro plant uses 78,720 SunPower solar panels as well as its tracker systems. The project is being built for SunRay Renewable Energy

Premier Power Renewable Energy has achieved ISO certification for its Italian subsidiary. This certification is an international quality management standard focused on fulfilling customer requirements, enhancing customer satisfaction and continually improving business performance.

Padua, Italy-based Silfab, supplier of high-grade polysilicon to the photovoltaics industry, has opened five new 1MW solar power plants in the Bari and Taranto regions of Southern Italy. The company has also hinted that it intends to develop an integrated PV supply chain in an undisclosed location in North America based on a ‘Green-to-Green’ business model.

Premier Power has begun construction on an additional 1MW solar power project in Puglia, Italy as part of the previously announced $100 million-plus worth of solar plants planned for the country. The announcement of the developments was made following Premier’s acquisition of Arco Energy in July.

Mitsubishi Electric has completed a 2,906kW PV installation for Coop's new CNNA-Prato logistic center in Prato, Italy. 15,650 modules have now been installed on the warehouse roof, covering a surface of 21,000m².

Business is back and booming at major PV systems integrator Phoenix Solar. The German residential market is overheating as the race to complete installations by year-end intensifies. According to Phoenix Solar, there will not be enough inverters and solar modules available through to the end of the year to achieve its original revenue guidance.

Greenvision Ambiente and the Marseglia Group's respective subsidiaries, Greenvision Ambiente Photo-Solar and KM Energy, have signed a letter of intent for the construction of a 13MW photovoltaic park in Calabria, Italy.

Italian PV systems integrator, TerniEnergia has acquired project developer Capital Energy in an effort to boost its target of PV installations in Italy and add to its pipeline of projects. TerniEnergia noted that it had already reached its previously announced plan to install 22MW in 2009, which occurred in the third quarter of 2009. The acquisition of Capital Energy gives the company a pipeline of 6 PV plants and 6MW of installations that were said to be in an advanced phase of authority approval.

aleo solar has delivered 10,000 of its S_18 modules for use in a 2.3MW solar farm in Corinaldo, Italy, in the country’s Marche region. The farm, which uses a fixed mounting system, was connected to the grid in mid-September and was developed and constructed by General Building S.p.A.

Earlier this month, the two main bodies in the Italian renewable energy world, Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane (GIFI), the Italian Photovoltaic Association, and Federazione Nazionale Imprese Elettrotecniche ed Elettroniche (ANIE), proposed a new set of Feed in Tariffs (FiT) for Italy, which are planned for 2011, according to a Barclays Solar report.

Premier Power Renewable Energy has made progress on the first phase of its 20MW solar pipeline in located in the Puglia region of southern Italy. This is the first in a series of projects valued in excess of US$100 million that are being developed as a result of Premier Power's acquisition of Arco Energy in July this year.

By the end of September, TerniEnergia should have completed all nine of its new PV solar installations in Puglia, Marche and Umbria with a total combined capacity of 10MW. Five of the new installations are assigned to the joint ventures for the production and sales of electrical energy from solar sources, with total combined capacity of 6MWp, while the other four are for third parties and will achieve 4MWp.

DEGERenergie will deliver 2,660 TOPtraker 8.5 units to Sicily by the end of the year, to be used in the local Province of Agrigent, where a 3MW solar park is being developed. The order has been placed by the general contractor, Martifer Solar Italy, a subsidiary of the Portuguese Martifer Group.

Solon's Italian subsidiary and logistics firm Interporto di Padova have signed an agreement to build what is being called the world's largest photovoltaic roof-mounted system in Padua, Italy. Interporto di Padova will provide 250,000 m² of space on top of its of its logistics center for the construction of the 15MWp PV power station, which will generate as much as 17 million kWh of electricity annually.

MAGE Solar and IdeemaSun energy, founding companies of SolidMarks, have announced a contract for a 2.7MW project in Northern Italy. The project will span over two locations - Bodino and Torino.

Feed-in tariff (FiT) policies are now implemented in more than 40 countries around the world and are cited as the primary reason for the success of the German and Spanish renewable energy markets. As a result of that success, FiT policy proposals are starting to crop up in several other areas around the world including a number of US states.