“Photovoltaics would have an immediate effect on reducing bills, cutting costs by 40 to 70%. Estimating an average cost reduction of 50% (within the 40 to 70% range), this would result in total savings for Italian families of about 24 billion euros,” says Veronica Pitea, President of ACEPER (Association of Consumers and Producers of Renewable Energy), which brings together 10,000 renewable energy production plants, representing over 7,000 members with a total installed capacity exceeding 2 GWp. However, she warns about the sector’s problems in our country: “We need to address significant issues such as the production of the raw materials necessary to do important work, the necessary labor to do it, and the methods of disposal at the end of life of batteries and panels.

Unfortunately, in Italy,” continues Pitea, “bureaucracy and especially the instability of our governments slow down the massive installation of photovoltaic panels and the development towards renewable energy. Between the ‘save Italy’ decree, incentive spreading, Tremonti environment, windfall profits, too often investors find themselves facing new expenses, business plans to be revised because the state promises things, but then with every change of government, what was previously planned becomes a ‘broken promise.'”

The President of ACEPER then addresses the issue of the EU’s new “green” directives, which require that by 2030 all residential buildings must be converted to class E: “The main problem is that more than 60% of our buildings are in class F/G, not to mention that the next step would be to bring them to class D… To reach these levels, we must imagine an Italy that completely changes its face. Let’s say we should imagine a 110% multiplied probably by 1000. Then we have another problem in Italy: according to the Territorial Agency, there are about 2 million ghost houses and more than 35% of the constructions registered in the land registry were built without respecting regulations. We must first regularize before we can ‘give a new face in terms of efficiency’: will we be able to do it by 2030? We definitely need to align with the requests that the Earth itself is making of us, it is no longer a matter of imposed rules but of necessity, so somehow it will have to be done.”

Veronica Pitea estimates that for this transition required by the EU, a large workforce will be needed: “Today, with the demand we have in the photovoltaic sector, there are already about 500,000 workers missing; if we think that by 2030 we must strictly meet the EU’s deadlines, we will probably need at least another 3 million. Certainly many workers, electricians, engineers, surveyors, architects, construction workers. In all regions, without exception.”

Finally, on the announcement made by the UN that the ozone hole will close within 20 years, the President of ACEPER comments: “Photovoltaics could accelerate this change because it reduces CO2 emissions, one of the main causes of the ozone hole. To produce one kilowatt-hour of electricity, an average equivalent of 2.56 kWh in the form of fossil fuels is burned, and consequently about 0.53 kg of carbon dioxide is emitted into the air. Therefore, it can be said that each kWh produced by the photovoltaic system avoids the emission of 0.53 kg of CO2. If we consider that out of 14 million (census) buildings, we have just over 1 million installations…” concludes Veronica Pitea.