Italy solar capacity to hit 30 GW in 2020-Enel CEO

[jpak]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/08/solar-italy-idUSLDE76712I20110708

Italy's booming solar power market is expected to grow nearly four times to 30 gigawatts of capacity by 2020 as part of incentive-driven efforts to fight climate change, the head of Italy's top utility said.

Italy's solar market, the world's second-largest after Germany, has rapidly grown since 2007 when the government boosted production subsidies, attracting the world's biggest makers of photovoltaic modules, which turn sunlight into power.

"As of June 30, we have already exceeded a national target set for 2020 of 8 gigawatts (GW)," Fulvio Conti, chief executive of Italy's biggest utility, Enel , said at the official opening of a new solar modules manufacturing plant on Friday.

"Going ahead at the same pace, we can estimate that we can arrive at 30 GW in 2020," Conti said.

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