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Solar power in Italy increased rapidly in the last ten years, reaching an installed capacity that ranks fifth in the world. Solar power accounted for 7% of the electricity generated in Italy during 2013, ranking first in the world. In 2017, that number was close to 8%, which is beaten only by Germany in Europe. More than 730 000 solar power plants are currently installed in Italy, with a total capacity of 19.7 GW. Sun energy currently produces around 26% of all renewable energy in the country.The years 2009-2013 saw a boom in installed photovoltaic (PV) nameplate capacity, increasing nearly 15-fold, and 2013's year-end capacity of 17,928 MW ranked third in the world, ahead of the United States at that time. This was partly due to the generous solar PV power generation incentives offered under the Conto Energia schemes. As of 2013, the sector provided employment to about 100,000 people, especially in design and installation.

However, solar capacity growth essentially came to a stop after 2013, due to cessation of governmental subsidy programmes. Since then, annual installed PV capacity have been around 300-400MW per year.

The Montalto di Castro Photovoltaic Power Station is the largest photovoltaic power station in Italy, in Montalto di Castro in Viterbo province. The project was built in several phases. The first phase with a total capacity of 24 MW was connected in late 2009. The second phase (8 MW) was commissioned in 2010, and the third and fourth phases, totaling 44 MW, were completed in December 2010, bringing the total to 85 MW. Other examples of large PV plants in Italy are San Bellino (70.6 MW), Cellino san Marco (42.7 MW) and Sant’ Alberto (34.6 MW).

Apart from the more conventional solar PV technology, Italy may in the future challenge Spain as the role of Europe’s leading country in the developing technology concentrated solar power (CSP). CSP requires higher direct solar irradiation to function efficiently, which leaves only part of the country suitable for this technique. However, the southern regions as well as the islands of Sicily and Sardinia offer good conditions for CSP, and the Italian government has made large investments to promote this development.

Today, there are three plants up and running in the country. The first one, Archimede solar plant, was installed on the island of Sicily in 2010, with a capacity of 5 MW. However, planning and promotion is underway for several additional projects, which would add another yearly capacity of 360 MW.

History
Around 1850 wood, charcoal and straw were the main energy sources for many European countries. In Italy, due to a lack of coal, renewable hydro energy from the Alps made industrialization possible at the end of the 19th century. Using the local hydro resources made it also possible to be independent of coal imports. In 1914, 74% of the Italian electric power came from hydroelectricity. By the early 1990s there were already pioneers of solar energy in Italy. One was the chemist Giacomo Ciamician. In his journal article, ‘The Photochemistry of the Future’ he predicted the use of solar energy.

During World War I, Italy was not able to prevent an energy crisis revealing the dependence on imported fuels, mainly coal. After the crisis, hydro-power installations increased to ensure energy independence. This interest in locally available energy sources was in line with the economic self-sufficiency policies of the fascist regime. With the promotion of these policies, research into renewable energy use increased. As a result, more than 90% of total electricity production was renewable energy by the start of World War II.

After World War II there was a change in policies. Energy demand was rapidly growing, and new policies aimed at supplying energy through imported fossil fuels and the development of nuclear energy. Due to these changes, dependence on imported fuels grew to more than 80% in 2005.

With the oil shock in 1973, it was not any longer just pioneers, like Giorgio Nebbia and Giovanni Francia, showing interest in solar energy. Oil shortages led to an increase in events and programs addressing solar energy. The Energy Finalized Project Number 1 (PFE1) in 1972 and PFE2 in 1982 were started with the aim of promoting an energy saving culture in Italy, including energy efficiency and solar energy. Furthermore, some promising developments and Congresses in solar energy took place, but with falling oil prices in the 1980s these programs were soon forgotten. These developments included the Italian Section of ISES national Congress in Naples in 1977 and “The first Congress and Exhibition on Solar Energy” in Genoa in 1978. In Genoa an Italian first in solar energy was underlined, as in 1963, Giovanni Francia built the first solar plant able to produce steam at temperatures above 550°C. This solar plant was based on the central receiver and mirror field concept.

After the falling oil prices in the 1980s and the declining interest in solar power, in the late 1990s the interest in solar energy increased again, mainly because of the concerns on climate change.

Socioeconomic Affects
Conflicts with the placement of solar plants require researching the population density of nearby towns and/or urban areas, as the solar plants and solar fields will cause visual disruptions and potential emission of pollutants. Areas that allow for easy access to the solar panels for repair, the clearing of overgrown vegetation, and routine panel washing are ideal, as well as being located close to roads to decrease further building costs of additional roads and service pathways and to avoid inaccessibility to service vehicles. Being located close the power grid will also lower the cost of transmission and the loss of power, decreasing the economical strain put on the area for building costs and shortening the amount of time until the original cost is overshadowed by the solar plant or field's production. Original or continued land use or cover must also be taken into consideration as areas with large topographic feature will have a tendency to be shadowed more heavily. Areas with large quantities of trees could be overshadowed or have an increased risk of destruction in inclement weather. Locales with poor soil, heavy metal contamination, erosion, or are unfit for rural or urbanization could be used for solar energy production -- reducing the need to buy out farmers, disrupt pristine areas, and lessen the effect on surrounding habitats.

Energy policies
Government targets for renewable energy sources (RES) and different support schemes, especially for solar photovoltaics, resulted in an increase from 7.9% (2005) to 18.2% (2015) in total share of renewable energy in the total primary energy supply (TPES). 1.6% of the 18.2% renewables share is made up of solar energy. From 2005 to 2015 solar power has increased on average by 63.7% per year. The share of renewables in electricity generation has increased from 17.2% in 2005 to 40.2% in 2015, including 9.3% of solar power. This is the highest share of solar in electricity among International Energy Agency (IEA) countries. And the third-highest share of solar power in TPES.

Institutions
Important institutions that are responsible for energy policies, the promotion and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, co-ordination and payment of incentives are the Ministry of Economic Development (MSE), the Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (MATTM), the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF), the Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas and Water (AEEGSI), the Gestore Servizi Energetici (GSE), the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) and Terna.

Policy
The Directive 2009/28/EC establishes a framework for promoting the use of renewable energy sources. According to this Directive, 17% of Italy’s final energy consumption must be supplied by renewable sources in 2020. Italy’s 2010 National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) identifies sectoral targets and how to achieve them. In the 2013 National Energy Strategy (NES), Italy established energy aims to achieve by 2020 that rises the 17% EU target for renewable energy in final energy consumption to 19% or 20%. Energy efficiency, but also renewable energies, plays an important role for this strategy.

Conto Energia (Feed-in tariffs)
In 2005 the Italian government introduced the first feed in tariffs (FIT) specifically for photovoltaics connected to the grid, the Conto Energia schemes. The payments for the schemes were designed to be made over a 20 year period and to incentivize both smaller and larger producers to invest in the installation of photovoltaic plants and systems. Between 2005 and 2013, five different Conto Energia schemes were introduced by ministerial decree. Each scheme had differing terms and conditions and tariffs provided to producers.

The following table provides a summary of the costs and the solar capacities installed under Conto Energia schemes 1-5: The first Conto Energia resulted in the relatively small amount of 163 MW of new PV installations, perhaps because solar power was still in its infancy in 2005.

In 2007, The second Conto Energia resulted in a massive increase of 6,791 MW of new PVs at an annual cost of €3.27 billion, and was the most costly scheme. Almost half of the total cost of the schemes is accounted for by Conto Energia 2.

Conto Energia 3 ran briefly, resulting in 1,567 MW of installed power at an annual cost of €0.65 billion. This was succeeded by Conto Energia 4 which resulted in the largest increase in solar capacity so far at 7,600 MW of installed power at the annual cost of €2.47 billion.

The final Conto Energia 5 was introduced by ministerial decree in 2012. It was announced that the feed in tariff would end once the total annual costs of the cumulative Conto Energia scheme reached €6.7 billion. This figure was reached in 2013 and the final Conto Energia scheme was ended on 6 July, 2013. The final scheme resulted in a further 2,095 MW of installed capacity at a cost of €0.22 billion. Under the Conto Energia incentive scheme, a total of 18,217 MW of installed solar PV power was added at annual cost of €6.7 billion.

Conto termico
In 2013, the support schemes changed and a new scheme, the conto termico, was introduced in the heat sector. This support scheme provides incentives for the installation of renewable heating and cooling systems, and for efficiencient refurbishments, including solar thermal systems. Receiving support from the scheme depends on type of intervention and is granted for two to five years, with the amount depending on expected energy production. Additional factors like greenhouse gases impact of different bioenergy technologies, also influence the support granted. The total annual support payments are capped at €200 million for public administrations and €700 million for privately owned entities.

There are also several other incentives like tax credits for photovoltaic systems and solar thermal energy plants. A net metering scheme supports RES-E producers with plant capacities between 20 kW and 500 kW.

Research and funding
In 2013, the government funded energy technology research, development and demonstration (RD&D) with €529 million. In recent years, other areas of the government budget were restructured. Between 2000 and 2013, nuclear research and development funding decreased from 40.7% to 18.2% in favor of energy efficiency and renewable energy, which grew from 13.8% to 21.5% in the same time period.

Concentrated solar energy technologies and photovoltaics are fields of active projects and research areas. ENEA has been researching on concentrated solar energy technologies since 2001 and introduced several innovations. The Archimede Project is one such developed project.

Solar potential and development
The entire nation of Italy retains high potential for solar energy production, ranging from 3.6 kWh per square meter in the Po river plain to 5.4kWh per square meter in Sicily. As of 2018, solar PVs account for 7.9% of electricity demand. As such, Italy is a major leader in solar power generation and development. While solar power has a great capacity for energy generation, solar technologies are best paired with technologies that consume technologies efficiently. Solar energy is expected to reach levels of energy production comparable to conventional methods in the near future.

Italy made some notable advances in early in the development of their solar program. For instance, between 2011 and 2012 electricity generation via solar increased 75%, from 10,795 GWh to 18,861 GWh respectively. In 2012, Italy exceeded 16 GWp of solar power via 478,331 PV systems installed within the country. For comparison, in 2011 solar power accounted for 2.6% of electricity generated in the EU and 6.7% of electricity generated in Italy- the most in Europe. Finally, in 2011 Italy ranked first in installed solar power from new PV plants- with roughly four times the amount of power that was supplied in 2010.

Italy’s solar power production continues to increase over the years. By July of 2017, the solar power market had already grown by 19% by the start of the year. This was mainly accomplished with the installation of five grid-parity PV plants, which collectively hold a capacity of 63 MW. These panels are located in the Montalto di Castro region of Italy and were supplied by Canadian Solar Inc..

Concentrated solar power
Italy currently maintains various concentrated solar power (CSP) projects. Concentrated solar power plants concentrate solar energy into single points of collection with, for instance, mirrors, to maximize energy capture. Four types of CSP technologies are currently available on the market. These include parabolic troughs, fresnel mirrors, power towers, and solar dish collectors. The 15 MWt Archimede solar field is a thermal field at Priolo Gargallo near Syracuse. The plant was inaugurated on 14 July 2010,  and continues to be operational in a solar field of 31,860 square meters. It is the first concentrated solar power plant to use molten salt for heat transfer and storage which is integrated with a combined-cycle gas facility. Upon generating thermal energy, two tanks are available to store thermal energy for up to 8 hours. The two other CSP systems are the ASE demo plant, which uses parabolic trough technology to focus solar energy, and the Rende-CSP plant, which uses Linear Fresnel reflector technology to focus solar energy to one point of fluidized storage consisting of oil.

Salerno based Magaldi Industries, partnered with University of Naples and National Research Council of Italy, pioneered a new form of CSP called Solar Thermoelectric Magaldi (STEM). The first plant of this type was pioneered in Sicily in 2016. This technology utilizes off-grid applications to produce 24-hour industrial scale power for mining sites and remote communities in Italy, other parts of Europe, Australia, Asia, North Africa and Latin America. STEM uses fluidized silica sand as a thermal storage and heat transfer medium for CSP systems. This fluidized bed benefits from a high thermal diffusivity and heat transfer coefficients, as well as high thermal capacity as a solid. The use of silica sand also lowers the cost of the CSP, and the facility aims to minimize pollution released during the production and operation of the system while producing 50-100 MWe with a storage capacity of 5-6 hours. STEM is the first CSP technology to use sand for thermal energy storage, and also allows for immediate use or storage of solar energy through a solar field made of heliostats. Such technology is especially effective in remote areas and can be easily coupled with fossil fuel plants to increase reliability of electricity supply. STEM was first applied commercially in Sicily in 2016.