Tuesday 3 April 2012

Now also Italy will cut the subsidies to wind and solar energy projects

An increasing number of governmentsl are cutting subsidies to wind and solar energy. Now also the government of Italy has realized that there is a limit to how much taxpayers´ money can be wasted in order to enrich the owners of uneconomical renewable energy projects:


Italy will move to reduce taxpayer subsidies to its renewable energy sector after last year's boom in solar power, Industry Minister Corrado Passera says.
The official said Saturday in Cernobbio, Italy, that taxpayer subsidies doled out to the wind and solar power industries had generated "excessive" investments in the sector, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"Italy has important goals to meet and even surpass," he said, but added, "we need to do so without over-reliance on taxpayer resources."
The government, Passera said, will in the coming years "realign" the level of its incentives to those of other European countries.
The comments came a day after Paolo Andrea Colombo, chairman of Italian electric utility Enel SpA, said the heavy subsidization of alternative energy was hurting traditional producers such as his company.
"The development of renewables, combined with the stagnation of demand, is making it difficult to cover the production costs of conventional systems, putting at risk the ability to remain in operation," Colombo said.


Read the entire article here

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