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Italy

Information Updated through November 2015: CSP projects in Italy

CSP Potential

Italy has three CSP plants operational. The 5 MW Archimede solar plant in Sicily is the first to use molten salt as heat transfer fluid. There are several projects under development mainly in Sardinia and Sicily.

Area
301,338_km2
Population (2012)
60 820 696
GDP (2011)
2 194 750 US$ mill.
Installed power capacity (2012)
118 GW
Electricity consumption (2012)
302 560 GWh
Generation from RE sources (2012)
27.4%
Generation from CSP (2012)
Primary energy production (2009)
27 MTOE
Primary energy net import (2009)
141.2 MTOE
Total primary energy supply (2009)
164.6 MTOE
Total final consumption (2009)
125.6 MTOE

Archimede

2014: Italy has conditions suitable for CSP development only in few regions. Main islands (Sardinia and Sicily) and south regions are the most attractive locations in terms of CSP development since they exhibit the highest levels of direct normal irradiance in Italy and have favorable land morphology for solar field installations.In 2001, the Italian Government allocated € 55 million for CSP development and a national demonstration programme that recently reached the phase of industrial demonstration. In early 2007, a cooperation agreement between the National Environmental & Renewable Research Centre, ENEA and ENEL, Italy’s and one of Europe’s biggest utility companies, was signed to develop the Archimede Project in Sicily as the first Italian solar plant integrated with an existing combined cycle plant with advanced parabolic trough technology, using new collector design, new absorber tubes and molten salts as heat transfer and thermal storage fluid.

Archimede was inaugurated on 14 July, 2010. It is the first plant to use molten salt as heat transfer fluid and has a capacity of approximately 5 MW.

The Italian Action Plan for renewable energy sources launched in 2010 set a target of 17% share of total energy consumption from renewable energy sources by 2020.

In 2012, the Italian Government updated the tariff incentives for CSP through a new decree signed July 6 2012. For plants up to 2500 m2 of solar field aperture area the incentive to be added to the selling price varies between 0.36 and 0.30 euro cents per kWh depending on the fraction of integration, whereas for plants above 2500 m2 of aperture the incentive to be added to the selling price varies between 0.32 and 0.27 euro cents per kWh.

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