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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 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.