More and more German companies are selling storage systems also in the Italian market. How is the residential storage market developing?
The Italian storage systems market has developed very fast in the last two years and it’s now the second biggest market in Europe as of installed units (10.000 installed storage systems). The main driver for the growth of the residential market is self-consumption, that helps being more independent from the local grid: today’s new storage solutions enable a degree of autonomy of up to 80%, thus letting the owner of the system using his own generated energy and avoiding taking much energy from the grid at higher prices. During 2018, the trend in Italy is of a constant growth in the residential market. New regional tenders granting economic subsidies for the installation of storage systems (like for example the tender for residential storage systems in Lombardy in 2016 and 2017) could boost the market, especially in the areas in which the installation of storage systems have been lower than average until now.
Which business models are working in the Italian energy framework?
The application of the storage market in Italy is currently mainly residential, working in combination with a PV system. At the moment there are no laws in Italy regulating the use of storage systems as aggregators for the supply of network services, this is only the case for some pilot projects.
In which extent are digitalization and smart metering influencing the installation of storage systems?
The storage systems installed in Italy are mainly aiming at increasing the self-consumption rate of the user (so called “ behind-the-meter” systems), therefore any component that can ensure or improve the smart management of energy flows play an essential role. Digitalization, smart metering and the interconnection and balanced use of all energy-consuming elements of a user are fundamental.
Who is demanding storage systems?
Market data confirm that storage systems in Italy are mainly demanded by the residential user; anyway, the storage sector is slowly growing also on industrial and commercial applications. The main complexities in this sense are: the cost of the batteries, which is still pretty high, and the lack of certified systems able to manage big storage capacities.
Are storage systems being built in combination with PV?
Yes, both retrofit and for newly installed PV systems.
How is the Italian PV market developing at the moment?
Last year the market was around 400 MW of newly installed capacity (+11% on 2016). End of last year the new National Energy Strategy (known as SEN) was published: this should boost the PV market especially for utility-scale PV systems. Among the rest, the new strategy fixed the phasing out the use of coal in electricity generation by 2025; the reaching of a 28% share of renewables in total energy consumption by 2030 and a 55% share of renewables in electricity consumption by 2030. (NHP/HCN)
Interviewed by Niels Petersen
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More useful information:
http://www.pveurope.eu/News/Markets-Money/Insights-PV-and-storage-market-drivers-in-Italy
http://www.pveurope.eu/News/Energy-Storage/New-energy-storage-incentive-program-in-Lombardia-Italy
https://www.pveurope.eu/solar-storage/italian-installers-network-cooperates-sonnen-energy-storage
