Interview with Alberto Pinori, managing director of Fronius Italia

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Many redevelopment projects are made possible today by the energy lever (the energy savings generated by redevelopment, Editor's note): what dialogue does the renewable energy world have today with that of real estate?

At the moment, the dialogue between these two worlds is not fluid. The construction companies, still too focused on new buildings, have not been converted into true restructuring, the real driver of the sector today. For this reason, they struggle to grasp the real innovative opportunities that can be derived from energy efficiency and from renewable sources, only occasionally succeeding in proposing them in a structured manner. On this matter, the training route, although long and not always understood, is beginning to bring the first concrete results.

According to the latest report by the International Energy Authority, we are the fifth country in the world for our ability to produce electricity from solar panels, after China, Germany, Japan and the United States, and the first for our capacity to cover our national energy needs with solar power. What are your prospects for the renewable sources market?

In Italy, the future of renewable sources is linked to the new SEN (National Energy Strategy) which envisages, by 2030, the achievement of a share of 27% of renewable sources for energy consumption and 50% of production from renewables.The market for new installations is expected to grow for plants from 200kW to 1 MW which, being able to benefit from super amortisation, have a return time estimated at 5 years (considered an excellent goal for entrepreneurs); moreover, the opportunities linked to storage both with new installations and retrofit operations, seem to be the new horizon for the use of energy produced by renewable sources.

Where are we at with the smart grid in Italy?

The Italian supply chain is ready for the smart grid: technologies are already available, and companies are able to offer the market real innovations that will support the network that will be created.

What development do you expect in Italy for batteries and energy storage systems?

They will represent the real business of the next few years. We are already working to create the ideal conditions for these products to be systematically present in the residential and commercial solutions offered to the market.