Italy finally issues fourth Conto Energia

The Italian government finally approved and signed a decree on the new incentive system for photovoltaic energy plants on 5 May, the so-called Conto Energia 4. The new incentive scheme governs plants that apply for the incentive regime from June 2011 to December 2016 after which the Italian government expects PV plant to operate at grid parity.

The new regime, as anticipated, significantly reduces the feed-in tariffs provided by the previous Conto Energia 3 and introduces overall money caps on the subsidies which shall apply initially to large PV plants and, as of 2013, by flexible tariff reductions based on past installations. From 2013 the regime will adopt a contracts for difference-type model whereby the tariff is calculated taking into consideration the price of the sale of electricity.

All in, the new regime is a heavy blow to the solar industry, and is heavily stacked against large ground mounted projects, and therefore large sponsors and international banks that have favoured deals over Eu50 million. For instance in the second half of 2012, the tariff applied to a ground mounted plant over 5MW is Eu0.133 per kWh, 45.64% lower than the comparable tariff under Conto Energia 3.

Conto Energia 4 tariffs

2011 Tariffs for ground-mounted PV plants over 5MW (Eu per kWh)

June	0.264
July	0.251
August	0.238
September	0.231
October	0.212
November	0.191
December	0.172

2012 Tariffs for ground-mounted PV plants over 5MW

First six months: Eu0.148 per kWh

Second six months: Eu0.133 per kWh

For ground-mounted PV plants over 200kW total money caps on the amount of cumulative amount of 20-year subsidies are introduced:

Money caps
	1/06/2011 - 31/12/2011	1H 2012	2H 2012	Total
Premium budget	Eu300 million	Eu150 million	Eu130 million	Eu580 million
Indicative nominal capcity	1200MW	770MW	770MW	2,690MW

According...