The Italian PV industry, a market phase to handle with caution
A talk with Valerio Natalizia, President of GIFI and CEO of SMA Italia, about the current phase of the national PV market: prices down, tariff reductions, incentive spending, the economic and financial crisis. Natalizia’s message is to work for a healthy and long term market.
<p>We will continue our series of interviews on the situation of the Italian PV market with industry professionals. Today we are talking with Valerio Natalizia, President of GIFI (Italian Photovoltaic Companies Group) and CEO of SMA Italia SpA.</p><p>We start with asking him about his assessment of short-term market developments, in particular for the next year, in the light of the decline in tariff rates scheduled by the fourth conto energia and by other variables, such as the financial and economic crisis and the sudden drop in module prices in recent months.</p><p>The crisis we are experiencing is creating an uncertainty that was not expected until a few months ago, not because the crisis had not yet affected us, but at this acute stage we are seeing a marked lack of access to credit, which has resulted in a sharp slowdown of installations. The latest figures show this deceleration. Everyone talks about those current 11.6 GW, which will be 12 at year-end, but the market situation is different and certainly less euphoric, despite the price of modules has fallen to unexpected levels. Some manufacturers are adopting a pricing policy that is not sustainable in the long run. If we look at the quarterly data of both inverter and module manufacturers, we can see that the more fortunate reported a significant reduction in earnings, while the majority showed even negative values. This means that the current downward trend in prices cannot last forever and many who are selling their inventory at a loss will not resist for many more months. In fact, the overall production capacity has proved excessive in relation to demand.</p><p><a href="http://qualenergia.it/articoli/20111212-italian-pv-industry-market-phase-handle-caution">continue</a> – source: QualEnergia.it</p><p></p>
