The development of PV solar has been stimulated in the last four years in Sicily by Regional, National and European public founds whereas this technology is not yet competitive without any incentives, as regards the other conventional sources.

As a consequence of these public financing from 2000 to 2003, that amounts to nearly 60 M€, a new economic activity has been started up in Sicily and installed PV power will grow in the next months until 10 MWp.

Other relevant consequences are:

• 10,7 kt CO2 of emissions saved up;

• 4,3 ktep of primary energy saved up;

• 15,8 GWh of producible electric energy.

PV support calls for tender have granted an unsecured funding from 75 to 85% of the capital cost (VAT excluded) of plants. They have been addressed mainly to small grid connected systems with peak power up to 20 kWp. Also largest power plants and building integrated OV systems have been funded with specific calls.

It is also worth to note that Italian laws grant to small PV systems (up to 20 kWp) several facilities concerning the de-taxation of the produced energy and the definition of "typical energy exchange contracts” with electric companies

On the other hand, public financial support to Solar Thermal in the last years amounted to about 10 M€. The main result achieved consists in:

• 28,4 ktCO2 saved up;

• 10,5 ktep of primary energy saving.

Also for Solar Thermal system the typology of support is based on unsecured funding. The maximum rate of funding is 30% for a wide range of application: from building integrated installations to conventional medium-large DHW systems. Also high temperature systems for industrial processes or for thermodynamic power plants have been considered as eligible.

Further on-going sustain measures for solar energy (and other RET) are:

• the discount of 36% from the income tax rate for private house owners that install energy saving systems with a capital cost up to 48.000 €. Otherwise this benefit is shifted in the future and spitted in a five years long period;

• VAT reduction from 20% to 10% (always for house renovation works).

Table 1 lists the most important and recent calls for tender for PV and solar thermal financial support together with the related results.

Together with the energy and environmental results of these actions it is worth interesting to note their economic performance (table 2 and figure 1). If we observe the two indexes defined as the ratio between the amount of public funding (€) and the energy (tep) or environmental (tCO2) benefits these figures appear particularly high for PV.

Call for Tender	Total public funding [M€]	Assessed Installed power (PV) [kWp]
Bando 10000 tetti 2003 Nazionale PV	0,904	162,170
APQ energia PV e solare termico (graduatoria 25/07/2003)	19,717	3459,600
Bando 10000 tetti 2002 Regionale PV	6,713	1290,210
Bando 10000 tetti 2001 Nazionale PV	1,962	352,000
Decreto 388/2000 PV	4,653	894,300
POR misura 1.17. PV	19,170	2864,510
POR misura 1.17. solare termico bassa temperatura	8,330
POR misura 1.17. solare termico alta temperatura	1,660
Bando"Isole minori" PV e Solare Termico D. L.94/2000	1,342	166,000
Bando Solare Termico per Enti Pubblici ed Aziende Gas 2001	(5,700 available gen. 2004)

Table 1. Main calls for tender supporting solar technologies in last years

Public funding [k€] Primary energy saving [ktep] Primary energy saving [% of Gross Internal Consumption] Emissions saved up [ktCO2] €/tep €/tCO2 PV 59.319 4,34 0,03% 10,70 546,77 221,12 Solar Thermal 10.500 8,89 0,06% 24,10 47,26 17,42 Wind 21.328 64,37 0,45% 159,20 13,25 5,36 91.147 77,60 0,55% 194,02 Table 2. Economic performances of RET support actions

This fact makes necessary to adopt very strict criteria for the assignment of the financial support in order to avoid a wrong use of public resources. Also a reshape of the global support policy must be considered.

FV Solar Thermal

Figure 1. Effectiveness of solar energy support actions

Assessment of PV potential and action to support further diffusion

The Energy Master Plan contains also an assessment of the PV exploitation potential in the civil sector based on the available roof surfaces. This figure arises form an analysis of several urban morphologies conduced with the support of GIS tool.

The gross and the net roof surfaces suitable for solar systems installation are the one related to the flat and south tilted roofs. The gross surfaces have been estimated starting form the total urban area utilising a reduction factor calculated for 10 sample cities in Sicily. The reduction factor from the gross to the net surface has been assumed equal to 0,2 according to the results of several previous studies.

The result, in terms of suitable roof area per person is 7,7 m2 that is a value very consistent with other experienced surveys. Once the total suitable surface has been assessed (for each city of the Region) is easy to calculate the global amount of solar energy which could be collected using appropriate systems ( photovoltaic panels, air and water collectors, passive solar systems).

Then, the energy potential production and total installable power have been calculated considering the following parameters:

1. П module = 0,12 (polycrystalline silicon);

2. П bos = 0,85;

This potential is obviously merely "technical” and absolutely unrelated by economic factors.

The results obtained emphasises the great PV-roofs solar potential, that could cover about 40% of total residential electricity consumptions as the below graphics shows (figure 2).

Figure 2. PV-roofs solar technical potential in Sicily

In spite of these enormous potential the actual exploitation potential is very low because of the economic performance of PV systems and the very relevant need of public resources in order to support this technology.

The Action Plans have to start up this technical and economic potential gradually, considering the nature and size of markets for these technologies and examining influences on market entry and penetration.

To achieve these objectives the action strategies will be:

•

09

20

18

.П

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

AG CL CT EN ME PA RG SR TP SICILY

Total annual producible energy [TWhl Total residential consumption of electricity TTWhl

assessment procedures for project funding have to reward with more emphasis the energy and the environmental benefits;

• a certain cost-policy should be implemented with the support of other Regions;

• activation of direct incentives to the small user such as bonus distributed by sellers and/or installers;

• tax relief mechanisms on Regional base;

• "result warranted contract” will be foreseen in order to ensure the performances of the system;

• a shift from capital cost to produced energy funding;

• technical and professional learning activities have to be supported;

• information campaign about solar PV plants on environmental and economic benefits has to be promoted.

In addition, in the short and medium term capital investments with unsecured financing of 75% (short term) and 60% (medium term) from Regional Government have been considered. In the medium term a reduction of unitary PV costs of about 20% have been hypothesized. Furthermore in the short and in the long term demonstrative actions of hydrogen production by PV systems have been proposed.

By the way in the Action Plant a specific intervention on Advanced Energetic Systems for the Minor Islands has been foreseen.

The following table shows the forecast investments and the expected outputs (annual values):

PV	Regional Financing [M€]	Power installed [MWp]	Primary energy saved [ktep]	CO2 saved up [kt]	Energy saved cost [€/tep]	Emissions saved cost [€/tCO2]
Short term	20	3,55	1,70	4,20	482	189
Medium term	15	3,90	1,90	4,96	312	121

Table 3. PV actions in short and medium term

Figure 3. Rapid tool to evaluate the possible results of different support actions

A rapid tool to evaluate the relationship between the amount of public funding, total annual producible energy, total annual CO2 saved up, power installed and unsecured financing is represented in the following figure. Obviously this graph can be utilised with a constant price of the PV system.