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09/04/2008 07:38 AM
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Will Italy Be the Next Big Solar Market?
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In July, Spain announced that it will be cutting subsidies for photovoltaic solar installations by about 75% at the end of the year, in an effort to control a ballooning tariff deficit racked up by the booming solar industry.
As a result, the industry has been looking to Italy as the next-best market. However, opinions are mixed as to whether or not the market will be as hot as the Spanish market has been for solar.
Ernesto Macias, managing director of Spain's biggest solar panel maker Isofoton, told Reuters on Tuesday that he was hopeful the Italian market could reach its 1,200 megawatt (MW) subsidy cap within one year. In comparison, the Spanish solar power market has grown by 1,000 MW this year.
"I personally think Italy will reach its cap in 2009. Much will be derived from Italy, so we will saturate Italy," said Macias, who is also head of the European Photovoltaic Industry Assocation (EPIA).
But Italian industry experts said the solar ramp up will go more slowly. GSE, the Italian government department overseeing feed-in tariffs, forecasts no more than 450 MW of solar power will be installed in Italy by the end of next year.
The departments operations director Gerardo Montanino told an energy conference in Valencia that a 1,200 MW cap on Italian subsidies would probably be reached in 2012, according to a separate Reuters story.
Italian solar manufacturers said they must overcome significant red tape, including a requiremnet that some Italian solar plants wait a year before begin connected to the electrical grid.
If this is the case, there could be a significant slowdown in the solar market next year, as Spanish subsidies come to an end.
