Italy

The trade body has highlighted a lack of explicit PV industry support in EU member states which already host domestic manufacturers, such as Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and Lithuania, and says the focus on green hydrogen could exacerbate the solar trade deficit with Asia.

Nicola Rossi, head of innovation at Enel Green Power, has told pv magazine how the company is seeking to combine microalgae cultivation with solar power generation. The integration scheme is aimed at minimizing interferences with the PV plant and maximizing the benefits in microalgae yield

The Ferrero Rocher maker will buy the energy generated by two agrivoltaics projects planned in Sicily as it aims to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Two PV farms planned in Sicily by Canadian Solar, with a total 12 MWp generation capacity, will sell the electricity they produce to Axpo Italia under a ten-year PPA at a fixed rate which the Chinese-Canadian company did not reveal.

The Italian PV world remains cautiously skeptical about the €220 billion post-pandemic recovery plan that Rome presented last week. It outlines steps for agrivoltaics, but retains preferential treatment for the gas sector (biomethane and hydrogen), and notes the marginal role of batteries and pumping systems. However, the green policies are not final and could still be shaped by related decrees and non-financial measures.

International investments in large-scale solar plants, combined with repowering and current support schemes, could trigger a PV boom in Italy, says Germany-based technical advisor PI Berlin.

Developed by Swedish scientists, the proposed algorithm is said to calculate a project’s ideal design by combining climatological data with figures on expected solar power generation, shading distribution, water for irrigation, and agricultural yield. Its creators spoke with pv magazine about the key parameters that the model seeks to determine, one of which is the optimal distance between the solar module rows depending on the kind of crop.

The funds will be part of the EU Covid-19 recovery package. Overall, the Italian government expects to deploy 2 GW of agrivoltaics and 2 GW through energy communities.

Italy’s Council of State has issued a new ruling that bodes well for renewables development. The consultative body has clarified a number of principles related to permits, but caution is still required.

Italian start-up Genius Watter has developed a solar desalination solution that is claimed to be particularly suitable for remote areas with no connection to grid electricity. The system is able to produce up to 1,000 cubic meters of potable water per day at an opex of €0.20 per cubic meter.