User:Ostbert/sandbox

"alternative introduction"

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.

The years 2009-2013 there was 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 energy using PV technology, Italy may in the future  challenge Spain as the role of Europe’s leading country in the upcoming technology of 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.

Your outline looks good to me! Olle Terenius (UU) (talk) 12:46, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

Outline

-Introduction

Update fractions of solar energy (presently the info is from 2013). Update what has happened in the last five years regarding solar plants. Add something about italy’s role in solar energy development.

references: http://www.terna.it/en-gb/sistemaelettrico/dispacciamento/datiesercizio/rapportomensile.aspx

http://www.iea-pvps.org/fileadmin/dam/public/report/statistics/IEA-PVPS_-_A_Snapshot_of_Global_PV_-_1992-2016__1_.pdf

-Policy surrounding solar energy in Italy


 * overview
 * supply and demand
 * policy and institutional framework
 * electricity from renewable sources (solar)
 * administrative and planning procedures
 * grid access and connections

-Economic implications of solar

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421515301324

Issues with solar plant placement: population density, urban areas, land use/cover, and terrain type. Areas with large topographic features that could create strong shadows.

Issues with populations: emissions of pollutants and visual disruption in rural areas from the solar panels/plant.

Issues with transportation: ease of access for repair, clearing of vegetation, panel washing; should be close to roads to decrease costs of building roads and inaccessibility. Locating plants close to electrical grid decreases costs of transmission and power losses.

Areas that have poor soil, heavy metal contamination, erosion, etc could be used for solar production -- adding a positive side to a negative area rather than disrupting forest or pristine areas, or buying out farmers that will further implicate the economy.

-Social implications of solar

-Table of solar plants

Update the table over the largest power plants, number of power plants running, investigate where the power plants generally are placed (region wise etc.).

references:

http://www.infobuildenergia.it/notizie/piu13per-cento-installazioni-fotovoltaico-eolico-idro-11-mesi--2017-6057.html#

-Table of companies

-Technologies and projects

grid capacity and sustainability

Link to general PV technology

Energy storage technology

Molten salt = 8 hours

solar potential

Looking at each of the power stations, calculated potential versus actual power generation

Potential and generation of CSP versus non-CSP, CBA of each site (ie why aren’t all stations CSP)

concentrated solar power

Can calculate portion of electricity usage that is generated with CSP

Three major stations

Archimedes

parabolic trough, molten salt for energy generation and storage

ASE demo

parabolic trough- concentrated solar to one receptor

Rende-CSP

Linear Fresnel reflector

Links to wikipedia pages of the different technologies… describe briefly what makes each unique.

-Environmental impacts

More general description of the backsides of the different techniques solar power.

Perovskite solar cell has gotten major breakthroughs with 20+% efficiency while being one of the lowest cost options on the market, as compared to silicon cells predominantly used today. https://news.energysage.com/solar-panel-technology-advances-solar-energy/

More on the Perovskite solar cells: hybrid organic-inorganic lead or tin halide-based material, which makes them cheap to produce and easy to manufacture. Can either be used alone or alongside traditional solar to increase efficiency with an added layer of light harvesting. Issues with reaching widespread use from the low efficiency, unknowns about stability and potential lifespan of the cells, and concerns about potential toxicity. However, efficiency in the lab has grown from 3.8% in 2009 to 22.1% in early 2016 and researchers have made progress on reducing the toxicity of the cells. https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/stories/solar-energy-innovations-watch

-Gallery

See if there are more updated or new versions of the maps and charts already in the article. Add photos of: solar energy plant, concentrated solar power.

With 19,7 GW of installed capacity of solar Photovoltaic energy (PV), Italy has the fifth highest solar capacity in the world, and second in highest in Europe. Sun energy is currently producing around 26% of all renewable energy in the country, and the current PV capacity represents over 7% of Italy’s total energy demand, which is the highest percentage of all european countries. The main part of the solar energy production is produced by small installations, with capacities below 20 kW. In total, more than 730 000 solar power plants are installed to the electric grid .Italy has, during the past decade, been one of the leading european countries in the progression of PV power plant installations, as the capacity has consistently been growing for each year (2). After a previously rather slow growth rate, political subsidies and investments made a huge impact in 2008, and Italy’s annual installed capacity of PV virtually exploded. From an annual installed capacity of 50 MW in 2007, the numbers went up to 396 MW in 2008 and kept growing until the top notation of 9536 MW in 2011. After that, the recession following the financial crisis of 2008 led the government to withdraw large subsidy programmes for PV in 2013. After that, the annual installation of PV capacity has vigorously decreased, and has for the last couple of years been quite stable around 300-400 MW.

Looking at PV power potential in Italy, the highest potential is available in the southern regions of the country and in the island of Sardinia. Yet, the highest total fractions of solar PV energy is produced in the northern part of Italy, followed by the southeastern region. The lowest fractions are found in Sardinia, Sicily and the central regions of the country. This is mainly because of the population densities being the highest in these regions, however, and when the installed capacity is calculated per capita (watts per capita) the output looks more similar to the PV potential, and for example Sardinia and Sicily shows much higher fractions.

Italy has several large scale PV-plants, that were among the largest in the world upon building. The largest is located in the region of Lazio, in Montalto di Castro, with a power capacity of 84.2 MW. It was completed and connected to the grid in 2010, and was at that time the largest PV power station in Europe. 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 energy using PV technology, Italy may in the future  challenge Spain as the role of Europe’s leading country in the upcoming technology of 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 lacking coal, it was renewable hydro energy from the Alps that made the industrialization possible at the end of the 1800s. Using the local hydro resources made it also possible to be independent of coal imports. In 1914, 74% of the Italian electric power was amounted to hydroelectricity. In this time, in the early 1990s there have already been pioneers of solar energy in Italy. One of these was the chemist Giacomo Ciamician. In ‘The photochemistry of the future’ he predicted the use of solar energy.

During the time of World War I, Italy was not able to prevent an energy crisis and revealed the dependence on imported fuels, mainly coal. Due to the experience of this crisis, hydro power installations increased and ensuring energy independence was on focus. This interest in locally available energy sources was in line with the economic self-sufficiency policies of the fascist regime. Because of promoting these policies, the renewable energy use and research in these fields increased. Resulting in more than 90% of total electricity production amounted to renewable energy before World War II.

After World War II there was a change in policies. Energy demand was rapidly growing, and new policies aimed the ensuring of energy supply through import of fossil fuels and development of nuclear energy. Due to these changes the 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. The shortages during the oil shock led to an increase in events and programs addressing solar energy. The Energy Finalized Project Number 1 (PFE1) shortly before 1973 and PFE2 in 1982 were started with the aim of promoting energy culture in Italy, including energy saving, energy efficiency and solar energy. Furthermore, some promising developments and Congresses in solar energy took place, but with the falling oil prices in the 1980s these programs were soon forgotten. It was events like 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.

Energy policies
The outpacing government targets for renewable energy sources (RES) and different support schemes for RES, especially for solar photovoltaics resulted in an increase from 7.9% (2005) to 18.2% (2015) total share of renewable energy in 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 the promotion of 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 National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) from 2010 identifies sectoral targets and how to achieve them. In the National Energy Strategy (NES) from 2013, Italy established energy aims to achieve by 2020 and rises the 17% EU target for renewable energy in final energy consumption to 19% or 20%. Energy efficiency, but also renewable energies (RE) play an important role for this strategy.

Conto Energia (Feed-in tariffs)
In 2005 the Italian government introduced the first feed in tariff (FIT) specifically for photovoltaics connected to the grid, the Conto Energia scheme. The payments for these were designed to be made over a 20 year period and to incentivise 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 power installed under Conto Energia schemes 1-5: The first Conto Energia resulted in the relatively small amount of 163 MW of new PV power installations, perhaps because solar power was still in its infancy in 2005.

The second Conto Energia introduced in 2007 resulted in a massive increase of 6,791 MW of new PV power at an annual cost of €3.27 billion and was the most costly scheme. Almost half of the total cost of the scheme 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. More solar capacity was added under Conto Energia 4 then took place even under Conto Energia 2 and at a lower cost.

The final Conto 5 was introduced by ministerial decree in 2012 and it was announced that the feed in tariff would end once the total annual costs of cumulative Conto Energia reached €6.7 billion. This figure was reached in 2013 and the final Conto Energia scheme was ended on 6/7/2013. 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 efficiency refurbishments, including solar thermal systems. The support depends on type of intervention and is granted for two to five years. The amount of support depends on expected energy production. Additional factors like greenhouse gases impact of different bioenergy technologies, also influence the support level. 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 the energy technology research, development and demonstration (RD&D) with €529 million. In recent years the budget structure changed. While in 2000 the nuclear research and development was highly funded with 40.7% this decreased to 18.2% in 2013 and shifted more towards energy efficiency and renewable energy with 13.8% and 21.5% in 2013.

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 of the developed Projects.

Solar Photovoltaics
Solar photovoltaics (PVs) are used to harness energy from the sun's rays and converting that energy into electricity. In operation, solar PVs do not require the use of fossil fuels and do not contribute to green house gas emissions, meaning that they are effective in mitigating effects of global climate change. As energy from the sun is inexhaustable, energy produced from solar photovoltaics come from a renewable resource.The average amount of solar energy available globally is about 239 W m-2. While current global solar energy production overall is still negligible in comparison to other forms of energy production, research and development into solar technology can increase the possibility of impactive solar energy production. Due to its availability, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, capacity, and efficiency in comparison to other renewable energies, solar energy may be a major player in meeting future energy demands through renewable energy. Various technologies harness and convert the energy in different ways, with a few notable technologies in Italy in particular.

Grid capacity and solar potential
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
Solar PVs are considered a passive technology, in which solar energy is accumulated without transforming the energy to other forms for power generation. Recently, solar PV technology has seen great improvements in efficiency (around 18%), making the prospects for solar PVs very promising.

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.

Environmental impacts
Solar energy is a renewable energy source, that has zero emission of greenhouse gases while producing energy. Along with other renewables, such as wind and water power, solar energy is therefore considered an important factor for attaining a sustainable energy production. However, some environmental issues has been raised also when it comes to solar energy.

Photovoltaic Solar energy requires large areal exposure to the sun to produce electricity efficiently. While large portions of Italy’s solar energy comes from small scale rooftop installations, there are also a number of larger scale power plants. Such power plants requires much land use, and risk of habitat destruction and fragmentation needs to be considered.

As solar energy plants absorbs the sun’s radiation and converts it to electricity, this will naturally mean that less energy will be absorbed and reflected by the ground as heat. This may alter the local temperature around the power plants, thus altering the conditions for the local ecosystems.

Moreover, while usage of solar energy plants has very little environmental impact, the processes of producing and discarding the modules face some more serious implication. For example, PV plants require some specific resources (e.g. silicon, quarts and aluminium) and mining of these are associated with both habitat destruction and emission of greenhouse gases. In a similar manner, transportation of the modules, both before and after usage, is a potential source of greenhouse gases emissions.

Concentrated solar power technique harbours many of the same environmental issues as PV-plants, with an addition of a few issues. Some types of CSP requires large volumes of water, which can be problematic. There are also reports that animals, mainly birds, can be killed by the heatwaves when entering the concentrated beams of solar radiation.

Companies
Major Italian solar companies include:


 * Helios Technology
 * RTR
 * EF Solare Italia
 * Sonnedix
 * ForVEI