Solar Energy's Sustainable Business Growing Fast in Italy

While the US struggles to implement basic policies to encourage renewable energy growth, solar energy's sustainable business is booming in Italy. Though Italy's investments in renewable energy have received less media attention than those of neighboring countries like Germany, Italy has watched installations of solar power infrastructure explode within its borders over the past few years.

Italy's sustainable business success story seems to be due to a combination of a national commitment to quickly install thousands of megawatts of solar power, and a very progressive feed-in tariff system that helps make rooftop solar installations profitable for homeowners. If Italian policies were duplicated in the much larger US, they might well trigger a wave of sustainable business opportunities the like of which the world has never seen.

Mid-way through the year 2010, Italy had already installed 1,500 megawatts worth of solar photovoltaic systems. This is more than three times the amount of photovoltaics which the United States installed over the same time period, despite the fact that the US is a much larger country with vast solar resources. Italy hopes to have a total of 2,500 megawatts of photovoltaics installed by the end of this year, with a goal of reaching 8,000 megawatts by the year 2020. At present Italy is second only to Germany in terms of the amount of solar infrastructure it has installed.

As if that wasn't enough, Italy is also leading the way when it comes to investigating new solar technologies. Over in the US, renewable energy advocates often hear the tired old argument that "the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine all the time." But a solar project launched in Italy in July of this year has found a way to generate a constant flow of electricity both day and night. Italy's Archimede power plant concentrates heat energy from the sun and stores the energy in a mixture of molten salts. This means the plant is able to go on generating electricity, both at night and under cloudy weather conditions.

Italy's successes generating sustainable business opportunities in the solar energy field are impressive in themselves. Yet it's even more inspiring to think what larger countries like the United States could achieve by duplicating Italy's efforts. In addition to setting national goals for new solar capacity that encourage the industry's growth, Italy has benefited from a feed-in tariff system that allows homeowners who generate their own solar power to sell excess power they produce back to the grid. In Europe, the feed-in tariff concept has proven to be one of the most effective ways to encourage rapid growth of the solar industry, yet the US has not equivalent incentive program.

Considering the reluctance of Congress to tap into renewable energy's potential, it seems unlikely we'll see a national feed-in tariff system in the US anytime soon. But states like Oregon and California are moving forward with feed-in tariffs of their own, or other policies designed to incentivize home solar installations. Meanwhile a national renewable energy standard introduced in the US Senate last week would require that major US utilities generate at least 15% of their electricity from renewable sources by the year 2021. While that target pales beside the renewable ambitions of Italy and other countries in western Europe, it would at least serve as a first step toward committing the US to growth in the sustainable business industries.

How else might countries like the US replicate the success which nations like Italy have had in growing their solar industries? Share your thoughts below!

Photo credit: The Solar Ninja

Nick Engelfried is a freelance writer on climate and energy issues, and works with campuses and communities in the Pacific Northwest to reduce the causes of climate change.