The recent change in the italian policies for photovoltaics: Effects on the energy demand coverage of grid-connected pv systems installed in urban contexts

In July 2013, the Italian photovoltaic (PV) support policies changed the feed-in tariff (FIT)mechanism and turned to a tax credits program, which is currently in force. The aim of this paper isto investigate how such a radical change has influenced the electricity demand coverage of the PVsystems installed in urban contexts. A methodology, which connects the economic assessment to adetailed architectural and energy suitability analysis, was applied to some case studies to analyse therelationships between the physical parameters related to multi-storey buildings (roof shapes, numberof floors and area of flats) and the most relevant economic and financial features affecting the viabilityof rooftop PV systems. The study, which considers only the electricity produced by the PV systemsthat are economically profitable, highlighted that the tax credits scheme is even more effective incovering the electrical consumption of densely urbanised Italian city districts. The results, whichare significantly influenced by the latitude of the analysed districts, underline the opportunity forgovernments to adopt PV promoting policies that are more sensitive to the amount of solar energyavailable in the different regions of their national territory.