Italy’s Solar Power Flourishes With State Help

While economic gloom engulfs much of the world’s solar energy industry, government incentives in sunny Italy are encouraging start-ups such as February’s launch of photovoltaic panel maker V-energy.

Investors, ranging from families to Italy’s biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo, have piled into the photovoltaic market due to some of Europe’s most generous incentives.
Privately-owned V-energy is betting on those to fuel solar energy demand and has not been put off by frozen credit markets.

The Italian maker of photovoltaic (PV) panels — which turn sunlight into power — is being funded by shareholders and regional development programmes.

“It was a strategic choice of the shareholders that alternative energy is a good business, the business of the future,” Miriam Dase, a V-energy consultant, told Reuters at a renewable energy fair in Genoa this month.

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