Italy

Dutch energy company Eneco Group announced its acquisition of a 34% stake in Next Kraftwerke, a German company operating one of Europe’s largest virtual power plant networks. The investment was announced at the Ecosummit cleantech event in Berlin today.

The project is the initial stage of an organic reform of the Italian ancillary services market, which is expected to be implemented in accordance with the European balancing code.

The new rules will apply to the country’s 20 minor islands that have no connection with the national grid. Solar installation will be entitled to receive a premium tariff for both injected and self-consumed power.

The Italian manufacturer of crystalline silicon flexible solar modules began production of solar cells in late 2016. The factory is located near Torino, in northern Italy. The cell technology is being provided by Italy-based renewable energy company Day4 Europe.

The southern European country added new PV systems totaling 32.6 MW in March. Meanwhile, solar covered around 8.8% of Italy’s electricity demand last month, and 5.8% in the first three months of this year.

The British renewable energy infrastructure company has agreed to acquire 18 solar facilities located in Italy from a joint venture between U.S. companies Riverstone and SunEdison.

The Italian Revenue Agency has finally made clear that PV systems must be considered movable property. As a result, solar modules and other components installed in PV installations can now be depreciated by applying a coefficient of 9% instead of 4%.

The Italian energy agency GSE forecasts that a further 1.5 of PV capacity will be installed by 2020. Good business opportunities are also expected to come from the storage sector.

The U.S. cell manufacturer announced a partnership with Italian manufacturer Coveme to accelerate the development and commercialization of Natcore’s latest cell innovation.

The Italian utility is laying the foundations for solar cell production at its PV panel manufacturing facility. The final goal of the project is 1 GW commercial cell production. Meanwhile, Enel Green Power has secured the PPA for a 34 MW PV facility in Zambia, and has broken ground on a 238 MW solar park in Mexico.