Leading the way toward fuel parity in photovoltaics: The utility-scale market in Sicily, Italy

Abstract

The global photovoltaic (PV) market has been growing exponentially since almost twenty years. This huge demand for photovoltaic systems has been mainly driven by public subsidies in the form of a variety of national incentive schemes. However, in Countries where successful incentive schemes have been pioneered and are now - as planned - being brought to an end, the PV market is called to the challenge of surviving without any incentive to the end user. Grid and fuel-parity represent the keystone of this emerging new phase in the history of this renewable energy technology. In this paper we present a sensitivity analysis showing that in Sicily, Italy, the Levelized Cost of Energy from utility-scale PV plants is already competitive - if not even cheaper - with that from conventional power plants