[09/06/07] The Italian boom of the solar energy

The last two years for Italy marked an excellent performance in the sector of solar energy: this trend have to be inserted in the background of the European expansion of this field with the leadership of Germany and Austria from several years.

Thanks to the incentives inserted in the last two Financial Act, the growth of the solar plants recorded developments for both the applications of the technology: according to the figures published by Estif (European Solar Thermal Industry Federation) Italy is the fifth european market for the solar thermal, and fourth in the sector of photovoltaic (last report of Legambiente, 2007).

The figures are explanatory: the solar thermal technology has an output capacity of 130 MW, overall in Northern area, and a prediction of growth within the end of 2007 equal to 54%; instead for the photovoltaic technology, installed plants produced about 40 MW of output energy.

According to survey published by “Il Sole 24 Ore”, the most important Italian economic newspaper, in 2006 the value of the solar thermal industry was 70millions of euro with two thousands workers: an encouraging turnover, and for 2007 the esteems are even more amazing, expecting a bounce forward equal to 120millions of euro and an employment growth equal to three thousands workers.