Italy

The Italia Solare Forum this week in Rome highlighted the renewed importance of the large-scale solar segment in Italy and underscored the huge potential of energy communities, given the EU’s recent approval of a dedicated incentive scheme.

Scientists have assessed the performance of Italy’s first publicly funded BIPV project, which was installed in 2001. Their analysis shows that only one of the 10%-efficient panels in the 11 kW array experienced a severe fault that caused the complete loss of functionality.

Italian manufacturer Thermocold is offering new heat pumps with output ranging from 8 kW to 30 kW. They use propane as the refrigerant and reportedly have a seasonal coefficient of performance of up to 4.5.

A new report from Italian energy agency GSE shows that the 16.61 GW of ground-mounted PV plants in Italy only cover a small portion of the country’s agricultural space. In some regions, the percentage is even close to zero.

At the Agrivoltaics2023 conference in France this week, companies such as solar developers and mounting system suppliers called for a more central role for agriculture, amid ongoing legislative and commercial developments. However, uncertainties remain over the next steps European countries might take to drive such initiatives.

Italian researchers have outlined a four-step method to assess the technical feasibility of building-integrated PV (BIPV) projects in historical buildings. They applied the proposed approach to a courtyard building from the 16th century in the historical Italian town of Marcianise.

Solar-industry companies need to forget ideas about office-based roles and look far afield to source the recruits necessary for the energy transition – and then they need to keep them loyal by offering a rewarding career.

The European Commission said last week it has greenlighted a €5.7 billion ($6.24 billion) scheme for Italy to develop renewable energy communities up to 1 MW in size.

Germany, in collaboration with Italy, has revealed plans to import hydrogen from Northern Africa.

Italy deployed more than 3.51 GW of new solar in the first nine months of 2023, bringing its cumulative installed PV capacity to 28.57 GW at the end of September, according to the national energy agency.