Efforts to force the government to reverse policy decisions that damaged the solar industry received a boost when the constitutional court in Rome accepted the legitimacy of the case.
The court’s decision is an important step in challenging retrospective adjustments to solar support that forced owners to accept a new payment schedule and either an absolute cut in their tariff or a reduction in the term of support from 24 to 20 years.
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Agostino Re Rebaudengo, president of industry group assoRinnovabili, said he hoped the government would take the opportunity to overturn its previous decision in the imminent Green Act legislation. He also said international arbitration efforts led by foreign investors would also be solved if the government abandoned the changes.
There was further good news for the sector with deployment statistics for the first half of 2015 showing 127.4MW of PV installs. The majority was on smaller rooftops with 46.02MW of systems 3-6kW and 27.86MW of 20-200kW, according to data released by trade group ANIE Rinnovabili.
Despite the rebound, ANIE Rinnovabili vice president Alberto Pinori warned that while the figures were “comforting”, the industry was far from the 400MW installed in 2014 and the 500MW it hoped to install in 2015.
The PV installations are not supported by a FiT mechanism.