Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Economic perspective for PV under new Italian regulatory framework P. Lazzeroni a, ⁎ , S. Olivero a , M. Repetto b a Istituto Superiore sui Sistemi Territoriali per l'Innovazione, Corso Castelfidardo 30/A, 10129 Torino, Italy b Dipartimento Energia – Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Photovoltaic Italian industry End-Users Economic evaluation ABSTRACT A PV market decrease in Italy has been observed in the last years due to the closure of the feed-in-tariff contribution from the Italian Government. However, a new opportunity introduced by the Italian Authority for Energy (AEEGSI) could represent a possible driver for the Italian PV market. A resolution of the AEEGSI has introduced in 2013 the technical and economic rules for a new way of exchanging power between two companies: one energy producer based on Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and a final End-User. This new opportunity paves the way for new PV investments and an increase in RES consumption, since energy can be traded free from the network charges. A mutual advantage is in fact present for both RES producers and End- Users: RES producers sell their energy locally at a price higher than that the zonal-market one, while End-User energy bill is reduced. The present study defines a method for finding the best match between Producer and End-User advantages by stating the rules for the definition of the optimum sizing of a PV plant supplying a local industrial company. Net-metering contribution is also considered as a further economic boost for investment in the PV market. A further element of the analysis is devoted to the tradeoff of energy price between the two companies. Starting from the current Italian market energy prices, the study highlights how the economic indicators of the PV investor are influenced by the final price of energy paid by the End-User. The perspectives for PV investors is positive even without an economic incentive scheme of RES production. 1. Introduction The penetration of Photovoltaic (PV) generation in the Italian distribution and transmission grid has significantly increased in recent years [1,2]. This growth was mainly driven by means of a significant feed-in-tariff scheme adopted in the past [3,4]. The main role of these incentives was to foster the PV market at the beginning level when the installation of PV plants was hardly profitable at all due to high capital costs [5]. However, these incentives provided by the Italian Energy Service Management (GSE) under Italian Government policy, were initially proportional only to the energy produced by the PV plants. It is worth noting that the adopted feed-in-tariff scheme was not at all based on self-consumption of the PV energy production [6,7]. Consequently, the adopted incentive scheme strongly increased the PV market, boosting the demand for new PV installations [8]. In particular, many new large-size PV plants appeared in Italy during the period 2008–2010 [5,7], because of a reduced capital cost of medium/ large PV size with respect to small one under economies of scale. This condition gave rise to transmission line congestions and grid instabil- ities in some cases during the summer especially in the Southern part of Italy characterised by higher values of solar irradiation, as observed by Italian TSO (TERNA) [9]. A subsequent significative decrease in the PV module price in the period 2010–2012 [10] induced the Italian Government to reduce year-by-year the feed-in-tariff contribution for PV energy production. Moreover, the incentive pricing was differentiated by PV size, encoura- ging the installation of smaller systems for residential and tertiary applications. In this context, the energy self-consumption aspect was finally introduced in the feed-in-tariff scheme by making the local consumption of PV energy production more profitable rather than selling it into the grid. However, the regulatory framework introduced by the Italian Government in July 2013 [11], definitively closed the feed-in-tariff scheme in Italy and no further incentives can be obtained for PV energy production. This situation can potentially reduce the prospects for an increasing PV market, since the feed-in-tariff scheme represented a relevant income for the investors in Renewable Energy Sources (RES). In fact, the lack of supporting actions has a negative impact on the PV market, which it is no longer perceived as lucrative by investors in PV [12]. This trend is confirmed by [5,13,14] which highlight a reduced http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.056 Received 29 September 2015; Received in revised form 30 November 2016; Accepted 7 December 2016 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: paolo.lazzeroni@polito.it (P. Lazzeroni). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (xxxx) xxxx–xxxx 1364-0321/ © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Lazzeroni, P., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.056