Lessons Learned: Remember Italy's recent rejection of nuclear power?

[kristopher]

Lessons Learned: Italy's Solar Rise and the Path Ahead
By Steve Leone, Associate Editor, RenewableEnergyWorld.com
August 29, 2011

New Hampshire, USA -- Two years ago, solar was little more than a romantic notion in Italy. There was a total of about 1 gigawatt of capacity that had been installed over the previous four years. Everyone loved the idea of solar, but it gained relatively little traction compared to other parts of Europe.

Then markets elsewhere slowed down and policies within Italy changed. Suddenly, it became the hottest market around, and the nation’s installed capacity shot up to 3.4 GW by the end of last year to a shade under 9 GW by the end of July. Now a country that had implemented a target of 8 GW of solar by 2020 has rewritten its target to achieve 23 GW by 2016.

The sudden rise to become the world’s second largest solar market behind Germany has not come without some headaches and many lessons learned, and it has many countries with big solar ambitions watching intently. But, ultimately, Italy has been a success story even though its growth has coincided with deep economic troubles that continue to grip the nation. So it was with those considerations that SEPA led a group of American utility executives to Italy this past spring on a fact-finding mission.

...“A couple of years ago, renewables were a niche sector, but now volumes are increasing and its important to have a systems approach to its development,” said Daniele Agostini, the Head of Renewable Energy Regulation and Energy Efficiency at Italian utility giant Enel. “They’re great. We’re all for them. But we need to change the way we think about renewables. It’s no longer a nice, romantic thing to have. Once you get significant volumes, you need to change how you manage it. Once you start to incentivize 23 GW, every cent that you move moves a lot of costs. And it’s important that customers are aware of those costs.”...

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/08/lessons-learned-italys-solar-rise-and-the-path-ahead?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-August30-2011

[kristopher]

1. The pronuclear crowd has been kept very busy unreccing this one.

[SpoonFed]

2. k&r n/t

[kristopher]

3. Those are some incredibly revealing numbers, aren't they?

Two years ago, solar was little more than a romantic notion in Italy. There was a total of about 1 gigawatt of capacity that had been installed over the previous four years. Everyone loved the idea of solar, but it gained relatively little traction compared to other parts of Europe.
Then markets elsewhere slowed down and policies within Italy changed. Suddenly, it became the hottest market around, and the nation’s installed capacity shot up to 3.4 GW by the end of last year to a shade under 9 GW by the end of July. Now a country that had implemented a target of 8 GW of solar by 2020 has rewritten its target to achieve 23 GW by 2016.



Accomplished:
2005 - begin installation of solar
2009 - 1 GW of cumulative installed capacity (1 nuclear power plant equivalent = 25%)
12/2010 - 3.4 GW of cumulative installed capacity (85% of (1) 1GW nuclear plant)
7/2011 - 9 GW of cumulative installed capacity (225% of 1) 1GW nuclear plant)

Projected:
2016 - 23 GW of cumulative installed capacity ( 575% of (1) 1GW nuclear plant)

Compare that to this:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/progress-energy-customers-are-helping-to-pay-for-a-nuclear-plant-they/1189391