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Italy PV technology status and prospects S. Castello, ENEA S. Guastella, CESI |
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Italy has been widely involved in a photovoltaic program, ranging from research
on materials and devices, development and experimentation on both grid-connected
and stand-alone plants as well as technology diffusion through public incentives.
ENEA (the Italian Agency for New Technology, Energy and Environment), CESI (Institute
for Research and Certification of Electric Components and Systems), the Ministry
of Environment and all the Italian Regions, ENEL Green Power (ENEL Group) and
some Italian PV industries have been the most active operators.
From the market point of view, the total cumulative PV power installed in Italy, at the end of the year 2002, was about 22 MWp. Rural electrification, off-grid domestic applications, on-grid centralized systems and on-grid distributed systems constitute the most important sectors of the Italian market, which has showed during this year, a behavior strongly dependent on financial support coming from the Italian roof-top Program.
In particular, after a year and a half from its starting phase, this Program is well ongoing. The first Sub-program, managed by the Ministry of Environment and funded by about 10 MEUR, is almost completed while the second Sub-program, funded by about 30 MEUR, has confirmed a strong involvement of all Italian Regions and an amazing amount of submitted projects. Following the real success recorded by the two Sub-programs additional funds of about 24 MEUR have been made available by the Ministry of Environment to finance all the first Sub-program demands (5,4 MW) while additional resources, funded by the Ministry of Environment and Regions, foresee a commitment of about 45 MEUR. In this scenario, ENEA provide the technical support to the Ministry of Environment in the definition, management, data monitoring and reporting of the two Sub-programs.
As a consequence of the electrical market liberalization, in 2000, CESI has acquired from ENEL its R&D activities in generation, transmission, distribution, end-use of electricity, environment and renewable energies. CESI is now carrying out studies and experimental activities, in the sector of photovoltaic systems, on behalf of Italian Ministry of Productive Activities (formerly Ministry of Industry). In 2002, ENEL Green Power Spa, the ENEL's company for business on renewable energy market, confirmed its position as the world’s largest company dedicated exclusively to renewable energy.
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Concerning the second Sub-program, composed by many local Programs completely managed by the Italian Regions, within March 2002, all the Italian Regions (with the exception of Sicily) have issued their regional announcements. Two of them, Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta, have adopted “open announcements” up to resources running out while the Autonomous Province of Trento has chosen annual annoncements. At that time, a great amount of applications had been submitted, amounting to about 5 700, well beyond its objective to realize a total capacity around 5,5 MW, corresponding to 1 800 projects.
At the end of 2002, the second Sub-program was well ongoing; most regions have already evaluated the projects submitted and have started the installation of the first plants while other regions are still evaluating their own shares of applications submitted.
Following the great success recorded by the two Sub-programs, additional resources, funded by the Ministry of Environment and Regions, foresee a commitment of about 45 MEUR In this contest, priority will be given to fully integrated roof-top applications while a decrease in the economic incentive and in the maximum cost allowed is foreseen. Moreover, in this phase the feeding law is under evaluation and an installed power of about 10,6 MW is expected. On the whole, with this sub-program, the Ministry of Environment incentives will activate an investment amount of about 150 MEUR to install a total capacity of around 21 MW.
Finally in the last year, on a total of 60 projects submitted in the framework of the PV in high architectural valence building initiative, four of them, corresponding to a total power of 200 kW, have been admitted to contribution.
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Most of these activities are carried out directly by ENEA at their own laboratories;
some others have been conducted by CESI on laboratories and on field, while some
specific topics are studied in cooperation of ENEA with the PV industries.
Activities on material and devices are focused on a-Si/c-Si hetero-junction, developed in ENEA Portici Laboratories for future industrial applications. Moreover, to improve the efficiency and stability of devices, both single-junction and tandem structures are investigated. At the ENEA Casaccia Laboratories, crystalline silicon devices based on laser assisted processes, on advanced screen-printing technologies and on buried contact cells have been currently realized with efficiency greater than 17 % and 16 % respectively.
Moreover, in the field of a-Si/c-Si heterojunction, cooperation between Eurosolare, ENEA and some other European operators, is currently carried out in the framework of the “MOPHET” Program promoted by the European Community. Activities on poli-Si thin film cells on foreign substrates are also carried out, in the framework of the V FP “Subaro”.
In the second half of 2001, the PhoCUS (Photovoltaic Concentrators to Utility Scale) Project was started by ENEA in order to investigate photovoltaic concentration technology and to assess their technical and economical feasibility. The first phase of the project is aimed at developing and optimizing the most appropriate technologies for the solar cell, the optical devices and the solar tracker.
At CESI laboratories, research has been carried out on high efficiency GaInP2/GaAs/Ge triple junction photovoltaic cells. This research on the fabrication of photovoltaic cells for spatial applications, is aimed at the development of GaAs-based cells whose cost could justifies their terrestrial application. In the field of systems and components, activities on small grid-connected plants, as prototypes of roof mounted systems are carried out by ENEA in Manfredonia test facility and in Portici Center. Performances of these plants are analyzed in terms of energy output, energy losses, power quality, operation and maintenance procedures. Analysis and tests on medium and large power plants have been carried out by ENEA on Delphos 600 kWp and Casaccia 100 kWp grid-connected plant.
Furthermore, the performance evaluation of photovoltaic components and plants has been carried out by CESI on several PV plants owned by the ENEL Group (throughout the Italian territory), in order to assess long term behavior of PV technology in different climatic conditions and in different electric configurations.
Also, in the field of plant experimentation, system and components performance are routinely evaluated by monitoring the most important parameters of the 18 pilot plants installed from 1999 to 2001 in the framework of the preliminary actions of the roof-top Program. Detailed performance analysis has proved that the values of their indications of performance are in good accordance with the expected figures for such kinds of applications.
On the side of components, the experimental support has been mainly focused on international market analysis and product acquisition in order to carry out specific measurement and aging tests on BIPV modules and to perform characterization and qualification tests on inverters and interface devices.
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The major PV module manufacturer is Eurosolare with a staff of about 70 people. Its manufacturing facilities have a production capability of 3 MWp/year per shift. Both single-crystal and polycrystalline silicon cells are currently produced. The Eurosolare polycrystalline module manufacturing process is completely integrated starting from the ingot fabrication while single crystal modules use wafers bought on the international market. Eurosolare production includes also specially designed modules for roof tops and facades.
The second Italian module manufacturer is Helios Technology. Its manufacturing facilities have a production capability of 2,5 MWp/year. Helios Technology module manufacturing process comprehends the fabrication of cells and modules from mono-crystalline silicon wafers.
In the field of PV systems, it is worth mentioning that both Eurosolare and Helios Technology activities include the commercialization, design and turn key supply of PV system. Other industrial operators in this field are A.N.I.T., Gechelin Group, SEI, Artistica and all the companies included in the Italian PV Firms Group (GIFI).
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In the last year the national PV market has been showing behavior strongly dependent on subsidized projects. In particular, the sector of PV plants for power generation has been strongly boosted by the financial support coming from the Italian Ministry of Environment through the Roof-Top Program.
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