Solar Thermal Markets in Europe - data about Italy

European Solar Thermal Industry Federation has published recently a study about the European Solar Thermal Markets. It includes trends and statistical data about those markets that achive a capacity between 200,000 sqm and 400,000 sqm like Italy, Spain Austria, France and Greece, and those that have a smaller capacity below 200,00 sqm like Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, United Kingdom, Denmark. According to the report, Germany still has a leader position in Europe in the Solar Thermal Market, even though here "the impact of the crisis was felt more sharply".

About the Italian market:

"Italy is now the second largest market in Europe, and much more stable that other emerging European markets. Compared with 2008, the Italian market has decreased by 5% in 2009, with 280MWth of newly installed capacity (400,000 sqm of solar thermal collectors). Due to its geographical location and to its high-energy dependency (86,8% in Italy compared with a European average of 53,8%) this market still represents a very strong potential for solar thermal. The major growth in recent years can be credited to a 55% tax rebate covering various energy efficiency measures in existing buildings, including solar thermal installations. These provisions will remain in place until the end of 2010 and the expert predict a steady performance for this year. In the event that this measures is not maintained in the next years, this emerging and important market could face though an important slow down."

To see the entire documents and trends&Statistics about other EU countries click here

SME performance review - fact sheet from Italy

In Italy, SMEs count for a percentage (99.9%) close to the EU average (99.8%); however they are represented here more than elesewhere by the micro-enterprises, which count for 94.6% of the total. The contribution of the Italian SMEs to level of employment is much higher (47%) than the European average (30%) and the contribution of the entire Italian SMEs sector is significantly higher ( 81%) in respect to the European average (67%).
In terms of added value, SMEs contribute (71.7%) more than the EU average (58%). However the historical timeframe 2002 - 2009 indicates that the number of SMEs grew less (-7%) in respect to the EU average and the percentage of new jobs created is 3% less than that of EU.

Click here to see the entire document.

The measures recently approved by the Italian Council of Ministries to reduce the deficit

From the Bank of Italy Governor's Concluding Remarks at the Ordinary Meeting of Shareholders in Rome - 31 May 2010

" At the beginning of this year it was estimated that the Italian economy would return to the, albeit modest, growth of the ten years preceding the crisis. In the first quarter GDP grew by 0,5 per cent compared with the previous quarter; there was an improvement in the opinions of firms, especially exporters, regarding the performance of orders and their expectations for production. Destocking appeared to have come to an end.

The explosion of the Greek crisis could change the outlook. Some European governments have taken action to reduce their budget deficits.

The Italian Government has reaffirmed the objective of bringing the deficit below the threshold of 3 per cent of GDP by 2012, confirmed the committment to achieving budgetary balance over a longer time horizon, and brought forward the formulation of the adjustment measures for 2011-12. According to the official estimanes the measures recently approved by the Council of Ministries will reduce the baseline budget deficit in 2012 by €24.9 operating costs of the public administration. The package is intended to slow the annual growth in primary current expenditure to below 1 per cent in 2011 and 2012, thereby reducing its ratio to GDP by more than 2 perecentage points. Over the last ten years expenditure expanded at an average annual rate of 4.6 per cent and rose by nearly 6 percentage points in relation to GDP. Careful monitoring of the effects of the package will therefore be needed to ensure the objectives are achieved."

See the entire documents at: http://www.bancaditalia.it/interventi/integov/2010/cf_09/encf_09/en_cf_2009.pdf