Sun shines on Italy's solar market

Italy's solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity has risen more than 36-fold in the past three years, according to figures released this week by state energy management agency GSE, which confirmed installed capacity had reached 795MW by the end of November.

The country is closing in fast on the one gigawatt mark, and Italy's solar PV association GIFI said in a statement that last-minute updates to the data for grid connections in December means that GSE should soon confirm capacity at the end of 2009 was close to 1,000MW.

The new data underlines the rude health of the Italian solar energy market, which has seen PV installations in the country rocket from only 22MW in early 2007 following the introduction of one of Europe's most generous feed-in tariffs.

The government is expected to reduce the tariff this year as it seeks to ease the budget burden. However, confidence remains the market will continue to grow - a fact underlined by Sharp's recent decision to launch a new solar panel manufacturing joint venture in Italy, alongside national energy firm Enel and semiconductor company STMicroelectronics.

The bright outlook for the Italian solar energy market appears to be mirrored globally as solar panel manufacturers predict that the supply glut that overshadowed much of 2009 is nearing an end.

For example, Steve Chadima, vice president of external affairs at Suntech Power Holdings, told Reuters this week that the company had sold out of solar panels. "We were basically in a sold-out situation in quarter four and we're in a sold-out situation at least through quarter two," he said.

Suntech is seeing demand from a growing number of countries, Chadima said, including Japan, which recently introduced feed-in tariffs.

However, he warned that the predicted boom in China's solar market will take another nine to 18 months to take off as the proposed level of financial support for solar installations from the Chinese government is currently too low.

A report from Lux Research last month predicted the global solar market will reach $100.4bn in 2013, up from $33.4bn in 2008, with new installations increasing nearly fivefold during that time.

The report also said that growing competition between solar panel firms will lead to falling unit prices and should result in consolidation across the market, with the weakest firms being acquired or failing.