FINANCIAL/TECHNICAL ANALYSIS ABOUT ITALIAN "IV CONTO ENERGIA" FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC ENERGY: A CASE STUDY

In this paper the authors analyse the Italian "IV Conto Energia" for the Photovoltaic in the light of the Ministerial Decree of 05th may 2011. In the first part of the paper the technical aspects of "Conto Energia" are dealt with, highlighting the major changes with respect to the past. The second part of the paper shows a financial analysis of an investment project for a photovoltaic 2kWp plant on a building. The authors consider cash inflows and outflows and they evaluate the discounted value of these flows at the plant commissioning date. The actual return on investment is therefore calculated according to the elementary principles of financial equivalence. The analysis highlights the critical consequences of the proposed cuts to incentives that will slash the return on investment by 60% as from 2012 compared to 2011.