ITALIAN SPECIAL New opportunities for Italy Italy – il Paese del Sole – the country of the sun. Hardly any other country in Europe seems to show such favourable boundary conditions for the development of solar thermal. High solar irradiation levels and high prices for conventional energy come together with an enormous technical potential for solar heating and cooling and a society with a big buying power. Touristic Italy: This 4.8 m2 sys- tem for solar hot water is in- stalled in the heart of Anzio near Rom. Photo: Consolar SolarSolar heatedheated waterwater forfor the guesthouse inin ththee monasterymonastery in Saeben: The collectors were brought to the site with the helicopter. Photo: Agency for Energy Saving, Bozen 76 Sun & Wind Energy 2/2006 ITALIAN SPECIAL New opportunities for Italy ut only in the last years Italy catches up with the other European markets, mainly driven bottom-up by interested end-users, active enterprises and local promotion ini- tiatives. Expectations are high, that the new Italian government will back-up this new growth with a national development pro- gramme à la France or Spain, in order to ensure quality B installations and a faster, but sustainable development of this sector. Ups and downs in the Italian market SolarSolar collectorcollector installationinstallation forfor heatingheating andand coolingcooling After a fi rst boom in the late seventies and the early on the roof of the company Ebner Energie Technik in eighties, the Italian solar heating market collapsed in Eppan near Bozen, Northern Italy. Photo: EUREC 1987 after the phasing out of a subsidy programme managed by ENEL, the national electricity utility. For Sun & Wind Energy 2/2006 77 ITALIAN SPECIAL Figure 2: Development of the the following decade, annual collector sales remained Others 8 % 2 Italian solar thermal market. below 10.5 MWth (15,000 m ). For a long time solar Poland 2 % The number for 2006 is esti- thermal suff ered under a poor image caused by a large Switzerland 2 % mated. number of malfunctioning plants installed during the Cyprus 3 % Source: Assolterm, ESTIF fi rst boom. Only since the mid of the nineties, later than Italy 4 % Spain 5 % Germany: 47 % 80,000 Installed collector area per year [m2] France 6 % 70,000 60,000 Total national market National production Greece 11 % 50,000 40,000 Austria 12 % 30,000 Figure 1: Share of the national markets in Europe in 20,000 2005. The total installed solar thermal capacity adds 2 up to 1,398 MWth (almost 2 million m ) 10,000 Figure: S&WE, Source: ESTIF 0 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 and the objectives defi ned in the Italian White Book for Renewable Energies, 3 million m2 of solar collectors in- stalled in 2010, remain ambitious and most probably will not be reached. Since a coordinated reliable monitoring of the col- lector installations is still not performed, the statistics of Global solar irradiation [kWh/m2] fi gure 2 have to be considered with suffi cient care. How- 1,700 ever, also soft indicators like a growing number of local 1,600 initiatives, new enterprises and media reporting on 1,500 solar thermal confi rm a new atmosphere of departure. 1,400 Luca Zingale, director of Solarexpo, Italy’s fi rst special- 1,300 ised solar energy fair and conference could count a 1,200 growth of 120 % for Solarexpo‘s 2006 edition: »Some years ago nobody would have believed that in Italy 22,000 persons could be mobilised for visiting a fair on solar and renewable energies. This proves that the re- newable energy sector fi nally is in its phase of defi nit ive take-off , and this also in our country.« As success factors for the positive development since the mid of the nineties can be listed the strong growth of the local markets of the autonomous Prov- inces of Trento and Bolzano as well as other important subsidy programmes launched by numerous regions and last but not least the Ministry for Environment. Furthermore the Italian solar thermal industry associa- tion Assolterm has infl uenced positively the coordina- Energy prices: tion and visibility of the solar thermal sector. Presently, Natural gas: 0.80 €/m3 the strong increase of the prices for conventional ener- Heating oil: 1.20 €/l gy, which in Italy are already traditionally higher than in Electricity: 0.20 €/kWh other European countries lead the public discussion System prices: 800 – 1,000 €/m2 (installed, and interest more and more on the use of solar energy including VAT) for the production of domestic heat (see fi gure 3). On the other hand, in many areas the market is still under its critical mass: Low awareness and confi dence Figure 3: Favourable macro in other European countries, a consistent revival of the on the demand side come together with a not existing condition for the develop- market has taken place reaching a mean annual growth local supply side. Presently, the major obstacles for a ment of solar thermal, radia- of 15 % for the last decade and a yearly installation rate stronger market growth are the absence of a national 2 tion map, energy prices and of about 50.4 MWth (72,000 m ) for 2005 (see fi gure 2). development programme combining a comprehensive system prices for solar hot Thus, the contribution to the European solar thermal quality and qualifi cation scheme with stable promotion water systems market from Italy, one of the fi ve big countries in Eu- and subsidy programmes and the low level of profes- Source: ENEA, Ambiente Italia rope with nearly 60 million inhabitants, lays under 4 % sional qualifi cation of installers, planners and architects. 78 Sun & Wind Energy 2/2006 ITALIAN SPECIAL Vacuum tube collectors on the roof of the Accademia Europea di Bolzano Photo: EUREC Solar hot water for public swimming: Since 2003, 88 collectors of the type Chro- Target groups for solar thermal 1991 and a recent subsidy programme aimed at public magen CR 120 supply the buildings. The complicated decision making structures public pool centre of Erice, The main target group for solar water and space heating and the lack of awareness regarding energy saving Sicily, South Italy. are private households. Of the 20 million dwellings in issues in the public sector have, however, drastically lim- Photos (4): Chromagen Italia Italy more than 70 % are situated in large apartment ited the success of this law. All over Italy only a few build ings. Almost 90 % of all dwellings are in private own - examples of solar heating plants on public buildings are ership. About 25 % of them are rented. The number of known. Mario Gamberale from Kyoto Club, created a single family houses in Italy is low, compared to central new campaign »Operazione 10« which reminds public and northern European countries. A large portion of all decision makers of their obligation to solarise their large multifamily houses are multi-property, organised as con- amount of public owned buildings. dominiums. The installation of a solar collector on the roof About 4 % of all Italian dwellings are owned by hous- of a condominium usually has to be approved by all own- ing associations. The analyses of the knowledge and the ers. This fact has proven to be one of the main obstacles ideas on solar heating systems among Italian housing for the diff usion of solar plants in urban areas. Further associations revealed all the problems of a starting mar- centralised hot water systems are rare in multifamily ket. The knowledge on solar heating technology lies far houses. In spite of the low awareness of environmental below European average. Based on bad experiences issues, many private households declare to be interest- from the past, today well developed products are un- ed in solar heating. One reason is the high cost for con- known and the confi dence in the technology is almost ventional water heating technologies. In the case of absent. The huge tourist sector and in particular hotels electric boilers, which are still very diff used in Southern and camping sites along the Italian coastline is another Italy and on the islands (40 % of all dwellings), a family key target group. Surprisingly, solar heating systems are spends about 500 €/a for domestic water heating. still an exception in this sector. One reason lays in the Public buildings like hospitals, sport centres, swim- fact that hotels profi t from tax exemptions on natural ming pools etc. are ideal customers for solar water heat- gas. Ambiente Italia’s recent project »Solarge« is aim- ing due to the high hot water consumption all around ing at opening markets for large scale solar thermal the year. The Italian government has tried to activate this plants on multi-family buildings, hotels, public and so- target group with the energy saving law no. 10 from cial buildings. Intelligent heat and solar Thermius 300 thermal controller Thermius 100 All in one unit � Graphic display for curves and bars � Internet remote control Brundtlandparken 2 � Mobile phone monitoring 6520 Toftlund · Denmark � Energy yield meter on display Tel.: +45 73 83 17 00 � Data logging Fax: +45 73 83 17 09 E-mail: [email protected] Thermius makes life fun! Web: www.allsun.dk 80 Sun & Wind Energy 2/2006 ITALIAN SPECIAL Thermosiphon system of the roof of a house in Sira- cusa, Sicily, Southern Italy This villa in Lake Garda, North of Italy heats the hot Space is not the problem at water with two in-roof collectors Solar industry and products this site in Riparbella, Tuscany Photo: Kloben The majority (> 95 %) of solar heating plants installed in Italy are small systems below 30 m2 (21 kW), installed on single or double family houses.