Italy, Photovoltaic technology status and prospects - Contribution to the Annual report 2004

Italy
Photovoltaic technology status and prospects
S. Castello, ENEA
S. Guastella, CESI

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General Framework

Fig. 1 - Regional roof-top Programme: 4 kW on a residential house.

In Italy, the year 2004 has been characterized, on one hand, by broad budget availability for dissemination Programmes implementation as well as very high public demand and, on the other hand, by rather slow market growth; essentially due to bureaucratic issues related to the incentive mechanism.

In this framework, during 2004 the cumulative installed PV power increased similarly to the previously year reaching a total of about 31 MW. Most of this capacity has been due to the expansion of the grid-connected market, in response to the incentives committed by the Ministry of Environment and Land Protection (MATT) and the Italian Regions. Small grid connected systems, now amounting to 12 MW, account for 40 % of PV installed in Italy, with respect to 30 % at the end of 2003.

Owing to this stagnating situation, by the end of 2004, the production of photovoltaic modules, applying both single and multi-crystalline technologies, amounted only to 4 MW, in comparison with the 4,3 MW in 2003. Reasons for the low growth rate were uncertainties concerning the future support of PV and the weak situation of the Italian PV firms with respect to the foreign ones.

From the market point of view, the average module prices have slightly decreased in 2004, reaching the lowest values of 3 EUR/W, for reasonable volume orders, while prices reach typical values of about 3,8 EUR/W for small orders. A similar trend has been recorded for system prices.

During the last year, the total budget for photovoltaics has remained at approximately 25 MEUR. From this amount, expenditure on PV research and demonstration activities has been about 5 MEUR and has been mainly supported by ENEA and CESI, remaining essentially at the same level, with respect to the previous years. The other 20 MEUR have been provided by both the MATT and the Italian Regions in the framework of the Regional Roof-top Programmes.
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Implementation

The cumulative installed power in Italy is at present about 31 MWp, 5 MWp being installed during the last year. This capacity begins to be dominated by on-grid distributed PV systems that amounting to over 12 MW, accounting for 40 % of PV installed power. The other primary applications for photovoltaic power systems regard:

off-grid domestic systems (5,3 MW), mainly promoted in the 1980s;
off-grid economic industrial applications amounting to 6,7 MW;
on-grid centralized systems (6,7 MW), sharply increasing at the beginning of 1990s.

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Dissemination programmes

Over the last years, dissemination initiatives have included several, still ongoing Local Programmes. These Programmes are completely managed by all the 19 Italian Regions and the 2 Autonomous Provinces. A contribution percentage ranging from 50 % to 70 % has been requested by the applicant and constitutes the main parameter for financing grants.

With reference to public funds allocation, local Programmes have been divided in two phases.

During the first phase, 70 % of the total incentives was provided by the MATT (i.e. 20,7 MEUR), while the remaining 30 % (9,3 MEUR in total) was provided by the Regions and Autonomous Provinces.
Because of a great amount of applications submitted, well beyond the objective of the Programmes, a second phase was approved based on an additional commitment of about 55 MEUR by the MATT in accordance with Local Authorities. In this context, priority has been given to fully integrated roof-top applications while a decrease in the economic incentive and in the maximum cost allowed, has been recorded.

On the whole, MATT and Local Authorities incentives are activating an investment amount of about 135 MEUR to install a total capacity around 17,5 MW. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that despite very high public demand, the Local Programmes are experiencing rather slow growth; principally due to bureaucratic delays in the application and permit procedures. As a consequence, at the end of the year 2004, only about 8 MW out of the anticipated 17,5 MW have so far been installed.
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Research, Development and Demonstration

Fig. 2 - Regional roof-top Programme: 20 kW on an industrial building.

In Italy, RD&D activities on photovoltaics are conducted by ENEA (the Italian Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment) and CESI (the Institute for Research and Certification of electric components and systems), with the support, in some cases, of Universities, Industries and some Institutes of CNR (the National Council for Scientific Research).

As far as ENEA activities, the most significant ones concern the optimisation of innovative solar cell fabrication: laser assisted processes, buried contact, selective emitter and advanced screenprinting technologies are mainly developed in the Casaccia Centre. In the field of thin films, a-Si based multi-junction devices are still a main line of the Portici Centre's activity, with the aim of improving the stabilized efficiency of integrated large area modules. Moreover, a new cluster tool was recently installed in this Centre, to begin a new investigation on poly-Si devices. ENEA is also involved in the a-SiNET and the European PV-EC-NET. Moreover, in the field of a-Si/c-Si heterojunction, cooperation between some European operators is currently carried out in the framework of the “MOPHET” Programme promoted by the European Community. Activities on poly-Si thin film cells on foreign substrates are also carried out, in the framework of the V FP “Subaro” while development on high efficiency crystalline silicon cells are studied in the framework of the “INDI” project. Lastly, a programme based on concentration, the PhoCUS (Photovoltaic Concentrators to Utility Scale) Project, is carried out in order to investigate this technology and to assess its technical and economical feasibility. 5 standard units (5kW each) are under installation at ENEA test facilities.

In the field of photovoltaics CESI is carrying out activities in the development and industrial manufacturing of high efficiency solar cells for space and terrestrial applications, based on GaAs compounds and in the analysis and testing of PV modules based on advanced solar cells and innovative components. The R&D activities of CESI in the field of space solar cells have been funded both by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA). In addition, triple junction solar cells (InGaP/GaAs/Ge) are under development and qualification and will be commercially available from next year. GaAs single junction and multi-junction concentrator solar cells are also manufactured for terrestrial application. This development activity is aimed to investigate the expected costs using advanced high efficiency solar cells derived from the space technology and suitable to convert the sunlight with an efficiency close to 30 % at concentrator values above 300 suns. CESI is also developing GaAs solar cells on silicon substrates for concentrator systems with the aim to evaluate the feasibility of further cost reductions of the PV energy. Moreover, in the field of PV systems, CESI is involved on research and demonstration activities for electrification of remote communities, funded by the Ministry for Productive Activities, MAP (see the 54 kW hybrid plant for Valcodera in a mountain area of northern Italy and the 80 kW PV plant connected to local Diesel generators at Vulcano Island). On the whole, the R&D expenditure in Italy has been about 5 MEUR, remaining essentially the same, with respect to the previous years.
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Industry Status

In Italy two types of major PV module manufacturers can be identified; some small assembling companies and several operators in the systems field. A major PV module manufacturer is Enitecnologie, formerly Eurosolare. Its manufacturing facilities have a production capacity of about 3 MWp/year per shift. Both single-crystal and multicrystalline silicon cells are currently produced from wafers bought on the international market. In fact, Enitecnologie has transferred the technology for multicrystalline wafers production to a Chinese-Italian joint venture based in China. As a consequence during 2004, feedstocks and wafers have not been produced in Italy. Another important Italian module manufacturer is Helios Technology. Its manufacturing facilities have a production capability of 4,5 MWp/year. Helios Technology module manufacturing process includes the fabrication of cells and modules from mono-crystalline silicon wafers.

Additional small companies assembling and encapsulating tailormade and especially designed modules, such as windows integrated cells or using colored cells, can be found in Italy. Finally, it is estimated that the number of companies installing PV systems in Italy has reached 100 units. These are specialist PV companies offering consultancy, installation services and component delivery and include ENEL (the biggest Italian Electricity Utility) Group, CESI and some electric municipalities. The most important operators in this field are associated in the Italian PV firms Group (GIFI).
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Future outlook

The rather slow market growth which occurred over the last years due to bureaucratic issues essentially related to the incentive mechanism seems to have been overcome. At the end of 2003, in fact, the approval of a law by decree regarding the implementation of the European Directive 2001/77/CE for the promotion of electricity produced from renewable sources has provided a strong expectation in the Italian PV market.

In particular, this decree law forecasts dedicated support measures for photovoltaics: they include fixed feed-in tariffs, decreasing over time, for different installations and a purchase obligation by utilities.