Italy

The Italian authorities have introduced new provisions in the DL Energia decree to reduce energy bills for households and businesses. Italian companies will be able to secure rebates for projects and several southern regions have also been granted a fiscal break for rooftop PV and energy efficiency.

The city government of Florence, in Italy, is installing solar-powered, self-compacting garbage cans that are claimed to reduce emptying operations by 94% compared to traditional bins. The devices were provided by Korean manufacturer Ecube Labs.

The planned storage capacity will come from 20 projects selected by Italian grid operator Terna through the latest capacity market auction. Half of them will be located on the island of Sardinia.

A 300m long PV system with a capacity of 71.5 kW has been deployed along a bridge crossing the Pò river in San Mauro Torinese, in northern Italy. The project was tendered by the municipality in June.

Called Tracker Sun Hunter, the new factory will be located in an area of over 30,000 square meters inside Enel’s Montalto di Castro power plant which is no longer used for energy generation.

Scientists have investigated how utility-scale solar may be used to power multistage flashing-brine recirculation (MSF-BR) water desalination plants in Aqaba, Jordan. They found the facility would be sufficient to provide the entire city with drinking water. The proposed system configuration comprises a 30 MW solar plant and a standar MSF-BR unit.

The retirement of coal baseload capacity, some regulatory adjustments and high energy prices volatility could bode well for the deployment of batteries in Italy, and especially in Sicily. Problems, mostly related to the timing and the structure of the auction, remain, however. We spoke about it with Michele Scolaro, Aurora Energy Research Associate.

Researchers in Italy are combining PV with latent heat thermal storage (LHTM) and other renewable energy sources to maximize clean energy consumption in buildings. The 47kW PV array and LHTM system work independently, but the scientists said that a heat pump could be used to link them.

With the Italian government temporarily limiting the returns available from solar plants on the wholesale energy market, Swiss investor SUSI Partners says the underlying strength of the country’s PV industry remains.

Mario Draghi’s administration has replaced market-driven electricity prices for the rest of the year and replaced them with tariffs based on historical averages. With solar plant operators among those affected, the European trade body for PV is not amused.