Italy aims to double solar PV capacity this year

Italy expects to see its installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity double this year to 900MW, on the back of new incentives that promise to close the gap on on market leaders Germany and Spain.

According to Reuters reports, the state-run GSE agency said last week that 338MW of PV capacity was installed in 2008 alone, delivering the third biggest annual rise behind Germany and Spain.

It added that the rate of installation had increased rapidly following the introduction in 2007 of incentives that are widely considered as being amongst the most generous in the world.

According to the latest data, 34,000 new PV installations with a total capacity of 435 MW were installed in Italy between last month and the launch of the the new incentives in mid-2007. In contrast, only 2,500 installations with a total capacity of 22 MW were installed in the two years prior to the new incentivres being offered.

The GSE said that if the requests for incentives continue at the current rate then "the number of installations operating in Italy could exceed 70,000 by the end of 2009 with a total capacity of 900 MW".

Reuters reported that the predictions are more upbeat than those put forward by the Italian PV industry group GIFI, which recently forecast installed capacity would rise by up to 650 MW by the end of 2009.

However, a number of large scale projects have been announced in recent months, particularly in the soith off the country, and analysts are predicting that in the long term Italy will join Spain as one of the leading solar markets in Europe.