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Italy vs US- Solar Facts

Italy Surpasses US in Solar PV

Installing More Every Two Months than California in an Entire Year

by Paul Gipe, Contributor

Published: June 30, 2010

New York, United States -- In a dramatic display of the power feed-in tariffs have in driving markets, Italy installed more solar photovoltaics (PV) in 2009 than the entire U.S. Moreover, within the first quarter of 2010, Italy's total installed solar PV capacity was expected to exceed that of the US.

The proposed revision to the feed-in tariff program (conto energia), currently waiting approval, reduces the tariffs and sets a new target of 3,000 MW for the three-year period from 2011 to 2013.

Italy installed 720 megawatts (MW) of solar PV in 2009, nearly all of that on rooftops. In contrast, the U.S. installed 435 MW during the same period, according to a draft report by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Italy introduced a system of feed-in tariffs for solar PV in February, 2007 after concluding that the previous program of Tradable Green Certificates was not delivering the results desired. By the end of 2007, Italy had installed five times more solar PV than in the previous year. Despite numerous bureaucratic roadblocks, the solar industry took off in 2008 and installed nearly 350 MW, then a record-breaking number. Solar PV installations have been doubling since then and are expected to reach 1,500 MW in 2010. Italy is three-fourths the size of California, with which it is often compared because of their similarly-sized economies. Italy has a population of 60 million, to California's 40 million. The population of the U.S. is five times that of Italy. Italy is now the world's second largest annual market for solar PV, after Germany. IREC estimates that there was 1,250 MW of total installed solar PV capacity in the U.S. at the end of 2009. Currently, the U.S. is installing 40-50 MW per month, and Italy 125 MW per month. At this pace, Italy surpassed the U.S. in total installed PV capacity before the end of the first quarter, likely by the end of February 2010. Italy is installing more capacity--250 MW--every two months than California is installing per year.

By the end of 2010, Italy will have a total installed capacity of more than 2,500 MW. This is two and one-half times more capacity than is expected in California, and one and one-half times more than is expected in the U.S. Italy's 2007 decree also set a solar PV target of 1,200 MW. They reached their target earlier this year. Unlike Spain, the government has no plans to cut the program dramatically. The proposed revision to the feed-in tariff program (conto energia), currently waiting approval, reduces the tariffs and sets a new target of 3,000 MW for the three-year period from 2011 to 2013. The revisions are expected to be approved sometime this summer. The proposal cuts the tariffs 18% in three equal steps of 6% during each of the first three quarters in 2011. According to Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane (GIFI), 93% of all solar PV in Italy is installed on rooftops in distributed applications. Data from Gestore dei Servizi Energetici indicates that about one-fourth of all Italian solar PV installations are less than 20 kilowatts (kW) in size, or about 300 MW.

• <3 kW: 6%
• >3 kW<20 kW: 21%
• >20 kW<200 kW: 23%
• >200 kW<1,000 kW: 36%
• >1,000 kW: 14%

Paul Gipe has written extensively about renewable energy for both the popular and trade press. He has also lectured widely on wind energy and how to minimize its impact on the environment and the communities of which it is a part.

Scotts Contracting is available to assist in the Design and Construction for your Renewable Energy System. Click here to email Scotts Contracting to schedule your Free Green Site Evaluation.

The Solar Decision

In determining which system is the right choice for your roof Solar Thermal or Solar Electric. Would you like to Generate Electricity or Heat Water for your Building? Scotts Contracting is available to assist in the Design and Construction for your Renewable Energy System. Click here to email Scotts Contracting to schedule your Free Green Site Evaluation.

Solar Energy Fights for Roof Space

by Chris Laughton, The Solar Design Company

Published: July 1, 2010

An increasing problem in today's crowded buildings is finding the best position to fit solar collectors. The two main forms of collectors found on roofs are for water heating (solar thermal) and photovoltaic (solar electricity). If space is short, how can you decide which of these two technologies gets priority?

The "fight" for roof space grows more significant every year, not only as equipment becomes more affordable and hence larger but also because optimum locations are occupied first by other equipment. These include roof skylights, flues, extract ducts, air conditioning and aerials. Such equipment not only reduces the available roof area but can also cast shadows that reduce the performance of solar equipment. Shading has a particularly strong effect on solar collectors, with even small shadows causing significant losses on photovoltaic modules.

Shading can occur from other roof objects or nearby buildings, trees or hills. These are particularly prominent when the sun is low in the sky, such as morning and evening or during winter. In order to correctly position solar collectors, consideration must be given to the daily sun-path between sunrise and sunset. This sun-path also alters seasonally according to the latitude of the location. There are also local climatic conditions to consider, where perhaps morning mists or afternoon thunderstorms occur.

It is worth noting that particular collector types react differently to the sun's constantly changing position. In some cases, automatic tracking devices are used to improve performance by altering the collectors to always face in the optimum direction. This affects what is known as the 'angle of incidence' of the beam solar radiation on to the collector. Solar radiation in fact falls on to collectors by one of three routes: 'beam' radiation in a straight line from the sun; 'diffuse' from all points in the atmosphere; and a proportion that is reflected from other surfaces (called the 'albedo'). During a typical day, not only does the total radiation change but so does the proportion of these three types. Some collectors use mirrors and tubular absorbers to improve the performance of a collector through a longer arc of the sun's path.

Professional solar engineers now use computer simulation software, such as T*SOL for solar thermal or PV*SOL for solar photovoltaic, to work out the best use of a given roof area. This allows rapid calculation of the total annual energy output from each hour of the year, as well as easy comparisons of all options. Good quality programs allow for comparison between different brands of equipment and user load profiles.

Separate programs are used for solar water heating and photovoltaics because they are two fundamentally different technologies. For example, the conversion efficiency of solar radiation to thermal occurs at a much higher rate than conversion to electricity. Also, heat is usually stored in water whereas electricity is either sold straight to the utility grid or stored in batteries. It is important not to underestimate the effect of changing loads on domestic hot water heating or the existence of a surplus feed-in tariff for electricity. The user may indicate a desire to alter their patterns of use to optimise solar contribution; however, it is unlikely that this will be retained through staff or ownership changes. Professional simulation software can visualise each of these situations and present a clear interpretation to clients.

While we can never fully anticipate conditions for a given day or week ahead, we can be increasingly confident of long-term monthly and annual results. Even if there is an acceptable margin of error in calculating future values, comparisons of equipment configurations and user load profiles are still accurate provided the same climate data set is used in the simulation. It is always best to reveal any assumptions for scrutiny and to use certified collector values when performing computer simulations for clients.

Where a roof becomes crowded, the more efficient solar products are likely to be prioritised in order to give the smallest footprint. Computer simulations will anticipate the best overall total energy production to displace conventional energy sources. An on-site tool, such as a solar site selector, is used to anticipate shading as an ideal accompaniment for computer simulations. These allow for real-time analysis of any site using a template and viewfinder, the results of which can then be recorded digitally. Generally speaking, if both solar water heating and photovoltaic collectors are being used, the priority goes to the latter if this permits avoiding shading.

Chris Laughton is Managing Director of The Solar Design Company. He is an experienced heating engineer, author and lecturer, and a regular columnist in magazines, journals and on-line media. His latest book Solar Domestic Water Heating: The Earthscan Expert Handbook for Planning, Design and Installation was published by Earthscan last month.

The information and views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on its Web site and other publications.

-- Scott's Contracting scottscontracting@gmail.com http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.com scotty@stlouisrenewableenergy.com

Solar & Oil Industry News

Prop 23- Oil and Solar Join in the Fight for Solar and Renewable Energy. Twitter and Facebook Links

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Scotts Contracting is available to assist in the Design and Construction for your Renewable Energy System. Click here to email Scotts Contracting to schedule your Free Green Site Evaluation.

Posted on July 1, 2010 -Oil Declares War on Solar. How You (and Twitter) Can Help Defeat Prop 23 for Free. Yes, free.

I'm writing this post quickly, so forgive my cross outs and typos. For those of you who want to say "Up yours!" to two polluting oil refinery companies experience the power of social media in action and would like to finally learn how to use Twitter, here's your chance. It's for a good solar cause, plus, it's dirt cheap free!

First, some background: California's Proposition 23 ballot initiative is officially called the "The California Jobs Initiative." Hee-hee. LMFAO! A more appropriate name is the "We Hate Solar Initiative." Others are calling Prop 23 the Dirty Jobs Proposition.

Allow me to cut through the Prop 23 bull explain:

• Proposition 23 is primarily funded by two who-gives-a crap-about-California air quality when when-we-live in Texas-based oil refining companies: Valero and Tesoro . Please remember their names and tell your children that these companies are the scary monsters under the bed.
• Prop 23 kills suspends the California law that requires the State to reduce its dirty CO2 emissions by 30% by 2020.
• If passed, Prop 23 also states that this clean energy law can't go back into effect until Hell freezes over the California unemployment rate returns to 5.5% for 4 straight quarters. Only then can we go back to caring about the environment and breathing.
• Proposition 23 will also increase oil profits at the expense of solar jobs prevent any California agency from imposing any CO2 emission fees that were going to go into effect. And now you know why these oil company yahoos are spending millions to get this proposition passed the basics.

How You can use Twitter to Say Bite me! No to Prop 23:

Step 1. Join Twitter. It's easy. Just do it or have someone in your office do it. You know you have to kicking and screaming some day want to anyway. If you or your solar company have a Twitter account already, please don't blame me congratulations.

Step 2. If you're not following anyone and brand new to Twitter, go to http://tweepml.org/the-top-100-solar-power-sites-2/. With one click, you'll be following almost 100 solar Twitter leaders and advocates. Don't worry about them following you for now. Just watch their tweets once a day and do what they do. (Yes, I'm on this list.)

Step 3: The only way to learn social media is to actually use it. Duh! Honest. So, this grass-roots solar experience is going to give you practice while giving the virtual middle finger to campaigning against Prop 23. All you have to do is:

• Take 2 minutes every workday and Tweet this:
• Just heard Prop 23 is a #solar job killer & backed by big #oil. Plz RT daily til November. This is my 1st RT.
• Every day you Tweet the above, increase the digit higher. This will benchmark you and help you to finally use and explore Twitter and see its power to spread useful messages.
• This costs you nothing but a little time. Feel free to also donate cash to the cause, but do this now.

There are a lot of benefits here, but there will also be great personal satisfaction in saying "Nah-nah, you Big Oil, solar job killing SOBs! defeating this anti-solar power bill without the television ad dollars of Big Oil.

Thanks, and as always, UnThink Solar.

Tor Valenza aka "Solar Fred" advises solar companies on marketing, communications, and public relations. Contact him through Unthink Solar or follow him on Twitter @SolarFred.

Photo: Flickr/ quinn.anya