Business Guide Power Sun

BUSINESS GUIDE
Ground Photovoltaic investments on marginal areas

PVs in BLOOM project a new challenge for land valorisation within a strategic eco-
sustainable approach to local development
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PVS in BLOOM

BUSINESS GUIDE
Ground Photovoltaic investments
on marginal areas

Venice, August 2011
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This publication has been developed in the framework of the Project PVs
in Bloom -Farming photovoltaic flowers: a new challenge for land
valorisation within a strategic eco-sustainable approach to local
development, Contract number IEE/07/762/SI2.499457, financed within
the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme (CIP Framework Programme) of
the European Commission.

The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with
the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European
Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may
be made of the information contained therein.
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The realization of this Business Guide was made thanks to the direct
contribution of:

Donato ing. Prof. Bedin Unioncamere del Veneto
Erica dr. Holland - Unioncamere del Veneto
Alessandro ing. Chies Structura Engineering & Innovation
Vincenzo Annunziata - EnergyQuote JHA
Andrea Virdis - EnergyQuote JHA

Best practices and description of authorization processes at the
regional level have been provided by the project partners:

Coordinator: Unioncamere del Veneto ( Italy)
Energy Agency of Sassari Province (Italy)
Development Company of Municipality of Milies (Greece)
University of Jan ( Spain )
Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Shipping of Valencia (Spain)
Institute of Physics of the Lublin University of Technology (Poland)
Innovation Region Styria (Austria)
Italian-Slovak Chamber of Commerce (Slovakia).

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Index

Donato ing. Prof. Bedin Unioncamere del Veneto..................................................... 4
Erica dr. Holland - Unioncamere del Veneto............................................................... 4
Alessandro ing. Chies Structura Engineering & Innovation ..................................... 4
Best practices and description of authorization processes at the regional
level have been provided by the project partners: ............................................. 4
Coordinator: Unioncamere del Veneto ( Italy)............................................................. 4
Energy Agency of Sassari Province (Italy) .................................................................... 4
Development Company of Municipality of Milies (Greece) ............................................ 4
University of Jan ( Spain ) ......................................................................................... 4
Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Shipping of Valencia (Spain).............................. 4
Institute of Physics of the Lublin University of Technology (Poland).............................. 4
Innovation Region Styria (Austria).............................................................................. 4
Italian-Slovak Chamber of Commerce (Slovakia). ....................................................... 4
Index......................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction and aim of the publication............................................................. 8
PVPP investments ................................................................................................10
Characteristics overview of PVPPs ...............................................................10
Main stakeholders involved ............................................................................12
Conditions and obstacles ................................................................................14
Legal and administrative requirements.....................................................14
Difficulties in getting the PV power plant connected to the grid ........15
Landscape impact & geographical location .............................................16
Lack of financial resources (public sector and private sector) ..............17
Incentives ..........................................................................................................19
Support to cover the generating cost through revenues........................19
Support to reduce capital costs..................................................................20
How to build an investment proposal for 1 mw pvpp in a marginal area by
an owner classified as public ...............................................................................22
Initial Investigation ..........................................................................................22
Feasibility study ................................................................................................23
Business Plan................................................................................................25
Authorization process at a regional EU level...............................................31
Italian authorization process ......................................................................31
Greek authorization process ......................................................................33
Polish authorization process ......................................................................35
Spanish Authorization process ..................................................................39
Slovak Authorization process ....................................................................41
Austrian Authorization process.................................................................42
Legal considerations on content of the public tender ................................44
Call publication and evaluation......................................................................45
The decommissioning of the PV plant as foreseen in the public tender.46
Main differences in case of a private owner .....................................................48
General interest ................................................................................................48
Financial instruments.......................................................................................49
Authorization processes..................................................................................50
Examples of Business Models referring to different PVPP realizations ......52
Campardo landfill Conegliano, Veneto Region, Italy..............................53
Description of the project ..........................................................................53
Quick facts....................................................................................................53
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Marginal terrain re-use model.................................................................... 53
PVPV design and construction................................................................. 54
Feed in tariff and additional benefits........................................................ 54
Sustainability principles and socio-environmental aspects.................... 56
Business plan main topics and investment indicators............................ 56
Lessons learnt .............................................................................................. 60
Thematic park - Municipality of Gavardo, Valle Sabbia, Brescia, Italy ... 61
Description of the project.......................................................................... 61
Quick facts ................................................................................................... 62
Marginal terrain reuse model ..................................................................... 62
PVPP design and construction.................................................................. 64
FIT and additional benefits........................................................................ 65
Business plan main topics .......................................................................... 66
Potential other investments ....................................................................... 66
Lessons learnt .............................................................................................. 66
Cavriglia quarry, Arezzo, Tuscany Region, Italy ......................................... 67
Quick Facts .................................................................................................. 68
Marginal area reuse model ......................................................................... 68
Marginal area reuse model ......................................................................... 69
PVPP Design and construction ................................................................ 70
Feed in tariff and additional benefits........................................................ 70
Lesson Learnt............................................................................................... 74
Tessmann Landfill, San Antonio, State of Texas, U.S.A. .......................... 75
Quick facts ................................................................................................... 75
Sustainability principles and environmental aspects .............................. 77
Lesson learnt ................................................................................................ 79
Thiva landfill, Viotia prefecture, Greece ...................................................... 81
Quick facts ................................................................................................... 81
Lessons learnt .............................................................................................. 86
Ronneburg mining area, Austria.................................................................... 87
Quick facts ................................................................................................... 87
Business plan main items ........................................................................... 90
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Lessons learnt...............................................................................................90
Eberstalzell buffer zone, Austria....................................................................91
Description of the project ..........................................................................91
Quick facts....................................................................................................92
Marginal terrain reuse model .....................................................................92
Marginal terrain reuse model .....................................................................93
PVPP design and construction..................................................................93
FIT and additional benefits........................................................................95
Business plan main topics and investment indicators............................95
Potential other investments........................................................................95
Power Park with citizen participation ...........................................................98
Murek Graz Region - Austria......................................................................98
Project description.......................................................................................98
Feed-in tariff and other benefits..............................................................101
Sustainability principles and socio-environmental aspects ..................101
Business Plan main topics and investment indicators..........................101
Potential other investments......................................................................102
Lessons learnt.............................................................................................103
Final recommendations for triggering investments by overriding barriers
and avoiding dangerous risks ............................................................................104
Investments made by a public body............................................................104
Investments made by a private organization/individual on its property
...........................................................................................................................107
Appendix..............................................................................................................109
Contacts ...............................................................................................................110

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Introduction and aim of the publication

Diversification of Energy sources and Environmental issues are becoming day by day one
of the most important points of discussion in Europe. Renewables could help us to
overtake these problems and Photovoltaic power production is surely the most promising
technology now available. This technology has a large numbers of advantages, such as no
emission during electricity production, but it still remains, in 2011, a costly technology
and need to be stimulated by governors and institution.
During last years, each country has developed several incentive frameworks that, among
the other things, are pushing photovoltaics to develop a lot, making it an affordable
technology for a wide range of stakeholders.
Due to technical limits, Photovoltaic power plant usually require large amount of surface
and land to be installed and being productive, and this character could be an obstacle in
development of Photovoltaic in case the need of land would not be managed correctly.
Land is surely a high cost resource, especially in the most economically developed regions
across Europe. In this environment, marginal areas could become a resource. These types
of areas are usually considered at zero value and re-conversions or reclamations are
often hard to justify on financial and economical terms. Expired landfill and abandoned
quarries are examples of marginal areas those could be exploited for installing PVPPs.
This strategy represents a good opportunity for private and public investors because
unexploited lands can really became income generating investments for many stakeholders.
What are marginal areas exactly? In Europe, intensive land utilization for agriculture,
industry and commercial usage, has given an irreversible land foot-print and marginal
areas are a huge part of these lands. Landfill, quarries, former industrial sites (dangerous
or not), former military areas, closed airport are examples of marginal areas. More
generally, a marginal area is an unexploited land resource that is not convenient or not
possible to convert to any profitable use or cannot be used anyway (such dangerous or
polluted sites).
The PVs in BLOOM Project is funded under the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme
of the European Commission, managed by EACI (The Executive Agency for
Competitiveness and Innovation).
The PVs in BLOOM Project has identified European Best Practices and models for
recovering low/zero value terrains through ground PV Power Plants (PVPPs) ranging
from 50 kWp to 2-3 MWp; involved 60 local public administrations across Europe in
its activities and produced pilot pre-feasibility studies for spurring the start-up of new
PVPPs on landfills and quarries.
The aim of this guide is to give references and easy-to-use indications to main stakeholders
for starting a small and medium size PVPP in marginal areas.
Complexity of matters and regulation changes still are troubles that need to be overtaken
with knowledge and information. Furthermore, different rules in each country are often an
obstacle for approaching joint projects across Europe.
For these reasons, this guide turns to investors with the spirit to give the basic information
for approaching the fulfillment of Photovoltaic power plants and, as we would like to refer
in particular to PV systems constructed on marginal areas, municipalities and public
companies are main targets of this publication.

This guide deals with the following points:

PVPP investments: a description of main characteristics of PVPP investment
giving a brief view about stakeholders role, main obstacles and conditions, type
of investments
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How to build an investment proposal for 1 MWp PVPP in marginal areas: a
detailed analysis about all steps necessary to achieve the target to propose an
investments in PVPP. Starting from the initial investigation necessary to set up
the plan, the guide covers all aspects of feasibility study, business plan,
authorization processes, public bids and project management. The focus is on
investors classified as public, but main differences with private investor are dealt
with as wel.
Examples of business models: taking into account particular and innovative
projects, the guide shows the economic sustainability of the installation, applying
the best practices
Recommendations: public and private investors can found in this guide a list of
main recommendations for triggering investments by overriding barriers and
avoiding dangerous risks
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PVPP investments

Characteristics overview of PVPPs

On a technical point of view, each PVPP investment must have a good
balancing between area characteristics and technical characteristics in order
to obtain the maximum efficiency in economic and technical terms. For this
reason we would now like to give an overview about these aspects of
PVPPs investments.
Marginal Areas refers to areas where there are conditions, intrinsic, induced
or latent, which result in delay or impossibility in their development
compared to the normal context in which they are inserted. The condition
for becoming marginal area can be either intrinsic (when coming from
previous uses of the same area) or induced (when there are political and
administrative constraints).
We should bear in mind that the term marginal area is not a synonymous
of remote area, as often marginal areas are closed to inhabited or
commercial or productive areas.

The main factors that determine the margins of an area are easily
recognizable and can be divided into three categories:

The lack of features necessary for social-economic exploitation
The previous intense exploitation of the area, which has resulted in
a depletion of the capacity for future utilization
The previous use of the area, which introduced restrictions and
constraints
The areas that we can select according to these criteria are:
o Landfills or waste dumps
o Quarries and mines
o Industrial areas
o Contaminated or non-arable areas
o Areas with limited access precluded or prevented
o Areas or military airport, active or abandoned
o Buffer zones

To be considered for a PV installation, these areas must be free from
landscape, archaeological and environmental constraints, or, depending on
the type of area, there must be an ad hoc authorization by the respective
Competent Authority (Municipalities, Provinces, Regions, Ministries, etc..,
and combination of them) for changing the destination of use.
Each of these types of marginal areas must have certain characteristics for
evaluating the possibility to build a PVPP. A lot of these characteristics are
essential, while others can be considered preferential.
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The crucial characteristics are technical and are specifically related to the
technique of PV installation:

Adequate surface area (about the range: 500 sqm - 30,000 sqm)
Open exposure of the subject, open casted and not over shaded;
Terrain should be flat, but maximum 35 to the horizontal are
permitted and in case of PV trackers terrain slope must not exceed
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The prevailing orientation of the PV generator should be South and
the tilt angle must be slightly lower than the local latitude;
Free and easy accessibility of the area, even for trucks
proximity of the grid connections
the absence of geological hazards, hydraulic and seismic
the absence of powdery emission sources in proximity is highly
advisable
Ownership of the area, or appropriate license to use, for the time
horizon necessary (20-30 years)

Now we need to analyze additional characteristics because they express
factors that may be preferable and favorable and can lead to have a lower
initial investments or special guarantees for lower operating costs in the
future.
Landfills or waste dumps: The presence of biogas power plant (CHP)
could be an advantage as determines the presence of electric delivery point.
Then the systems of exploitation of biogas from landfill accelerate the
process of terrain consolidation, therefore after 2 or 3 years after the ending
of exploitation of landfill (post-operative management that could be longer
than thirty years), we could be in the presence of contextual favorable
elements:

Reduction of geological risks and no variation of surface inclination
as a result of quicker terrain consolidation;
Power delivery point close to the area and therefore the investment
necessary to build the PVPP could decrease;
In case of overcoming the peak of electricity production from
biogas, it is possible to extend the life of the power point of delivery
using the additional power produced by the PVPP.

Industrial wasteland: The presence of electrical substations could have
favorably affected in the determination of the initial investment. It is also
possible to exploit the possibility to reclaim the asbestos roofing of
industrial building. In this case the eventual FIT could be higher and this is
important to be considered into the feasibility study
Contaminated or non-arable areas: These areas have the advantage of
latent conditions of marginality, for which the purchase price of the surface
before the assessment in key PV installation, is extremely low. If the
purchase is expected as a function of the Minutes of the settlement, the
condition element is to contain the initial disbursement.
Restricted areas, precluded or prevented: These areas may offer the
advantage of containing costs of the PV installation, in fact, the prohibition
or the problematic nature of access, may result in lower premiums for
insurance coverage to damage and theft.
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Airport areas or military, active or abandoned: In areas active military
we could have the same advantage that we had in the case of denied access
areas.
Areas of respect: they are areas located that do not overlap, but in the
immediate closeness of roads, railways, high voltage power lines, pipelines,
cemeteries, wastewater treatment plants, airports, telecommunications
masts, landfills and treatment plants waste.

"Unfavourable" elements for setting PVs
On the other hand, a common problem of all "green" marginal areas (i.e.
which have grassy vegetation that provides the accommodation capacity of
rainfall), is that an installation may result in a decrease of PV capacity itself.
Also high concentrations /conveyance of rainfalls in the area must be taken
in consideration, for the adoption of preventive measures against landslides
and mudslides.
This effect is worst if marginal areas are " brown" (no herbaceous
vegetation), as the carrying capacity of rainfall is limited in advance.

Regarding PV technologies we can split them in two main categories:

Crystalline silicon solar cells (poly-crystalline or mono-crystalline)
Thin film solar cells

Both these categories have advantages and disadvantages and their
utilization could be various.
The crystalline silicon solar cells have high conversion efficiency and save
their performance for long time. For this reason these type of cells could be
used when the surface is not big and it is necessary a high efficiency to
produce enough energy. Unfortunately crystalline silicon solar cells work
very well with direct irradiation, and have a sensible decreasing of their
performances in case of shadow and low solar radiation. This means that
the area exposure became crucial in order to not compromise the
investment profit.
Thin film solar cells have medium/low conversion efficiency for direct
irradiation, but they preserve a high efficiency with diffuse and low
radiation. Furthermore they perform better at high temperatures than
crystalline cells do. These aspects are crucial in case marginal area selected is
in a slope or it is over showed. There is a considerable lack of experience
when compared to crystalline silicon- regarding their on-field mid and long
term performance: in fact the thin film degradation process is not fully
predictable yet.

Main stakeholders involved

The construction of a PVPP is a long process that involves a large numbers
of stakeholders with different roles and level of interest. Authorizations
required, technical aspects, project financing and building of PVPP are
aspects that involve private companies, authorities and public institutions
therefore a brief analysis about the value chain is necessary to perform, in
accordance with the spirit of this guide.
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It could be easier to classify stakeholders in five different groups:

Entrepreneurs
Institutions (authorization process)
Energy authorities and/or grid manager
Banks
Technical Partners

Of course some stakeholders could change at partnership level and for this
reason, even if they couldnt be the most important, we would analyze
firstly the two groups Banks and Technical Partners.
Photovoltaic, even if the power plant is located in a marginal area, is a
capital intensive technology and, considering our Guide target, the building
investments could be up to several million of Euros. For this reason banks
and/or financiers (such as private equity funds) are strictly necessary for
obtaining the necessary venture capital to finance such type of projects.
PVPPs building and maintenance operations are technical aspects that need
to be managed by specialized companies that become technical partner.
PVPPs owner needs often to involve consultancy firms for managing the
authorizations, bureaucratic paperwork and engineering processes. After
these activities, construction of PVPPs requires high specialized
construction companies with the role to build and connect to the power
grid the photovoltaic installation. Furthermore additional partners are
necessary for maintenance, insurance and accounting. These partners listed
above are chosen by the owner in different ways that will be analyzed in the
following chapters of this guide.

Main stakeholders are surely entrepreneurs and taking into account that our
focus is on marginal areas and assuming that marginal areas are property of
municipalities and more in general public institution; these subjects
represent mainly this type of stakeholder. Independently from the country,
we could have three different categories of stakeholder:

Public institution that wants build and manage PvPP in marginal
area
Joint venture between public institution and private companies
Public institution that wants give land grant for exploiting marginal
areas

Ways of operating of these three categories will be analyzed in the following
chapters, but it is important to note that in all partner countries, Public
institution that have some right on marginal areas are very often local
municipalities. This because marginal areas are often lands at zero value
granted to private companies.
These municipalities are sometimes (it depends on countries and PV
installation size) involved in authorization processes as well, and this
conflict of interests make them a stakeholder also when we speak about the
institutional group of stakeholders. Institutions are important stakeholders
because they are main actors in the authorization process. Municipalities,
Provinces, Regions and Ministries (with some departments) are the
institutions that an entrepreneur needs to involve for building a PV
installation in a marginal area. The number of institutions involved change
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at partnership level and level of involvement could depend of size of
installation. This means that time to have all authorizations for going ahead
with installation could changes a lot at partnership level.
The last stakeholder group we are about to consider is Energy Authorities
and/or grid managers. Grid manager and in particular distributors are
responsible for connecting to the grid PV installations. It is crucial that they
give appropriate assistance in this because marginal areas could be often
located in regions that are hard to reach. In countries where there are
incentives, Energy Authorities are usually in charge of verifying that all
authoritative and installation process is correctly done in order to recognize
a Feed in Tariff incentive. With exception of Poland this point is common
to all partners.

Conditions and obstacles

Environmental Agencies urge public sector organizations to consider using
their land and property to generate renewable energy and - as already
pointed out above in this handbook the development of photovoltaic
investments on marginal areas can potentially represent a big opportunity.
However, PV energy is a relatively new field and sometimes some obstacles
slow down its development. The main objective of the following paragraphs
is to describe the main barriers with a specific focus on the development of
PVPPs on marginal areas.
Legal and administrative requirements
By studying the legal and administrative procedures defined in the countries
involved in the PVS in Bloom project a set of obstacles can be observed.

The main criticalities can be split into the following categories:

complexity of the procedures which are necessary to obtain
authorizations;
The non-uniform rules at national level.

One of the possible reasons of the procedures complexity is that frequently
to obtain an authorization it is required to deal with several public offices.
The Italian situation epitomizes this problem as - in the case of installing a
new power line to connect a new facility - the number of bodies involved in
the authorization process can be up to 13.
Nonetheless, the authorization processes are frequently composed of a
significant number of steps. In this area Spain represents the most extreme
case since the existence of the Registration in the Retribution Pre-
Assignment Register may differ the construction for years.
Conversely, there are cases in which barriers are determined by a lack of
regulation. For instance, in Poland there are few installations and the system
can be defined as not fully regulated.
As mentioned above, legal and administrative procedures are rarely unique
at national level as differences can be observed in every regional territory.
This is due to the fact that often Regions can play a legislative role - may be
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in conjunction with the national government in the field of environmental
protection.
This entails that the preliminary investigation to be carried out by a private
investor should include an analysis of the existing environmental procedures
which have been established at regional and local level as well as possible
limitations as to the installation of power plants or limits to the
classification of land that might affect PVPPs.
Moreover, additional remarkable aspects to take into account are the further
differences which can exist at the municipal level as consequence of a
different interpretation of the same rules.
Difficulties in getting the PV power plant connected to the grid
In most of the EU Member States the electricity grid has been under public
control over decades and this is probably one reason for which the access to
the grid is often problematic for renewable energy producers.

Criticalities in this area can be split once again into two different categories:

Administrative barriers
Technical barriers.

Concerning administrative barriers, a first aspect to consider is that the
procedures defined to connect a new facility to the grid requires in some
cases a high number of documents to be submitted and these documents
are often imposed by both the regulations and the utilities. Further, there
are countries such as Spain where the documentation is the same regardless
of what the size of the PVPPs is.
Nonetheless, it is not rare to see remarkable differences in the procedures
defined by different utilities as well as situations in which small
decentralized renewable energy sources are blocked by local authorities or
by the local utilities. Of course, in the case of PVPPs in marginal areas this
aspect can be even more important.
This situation shows clearly that European legislation has not been
uniformly implemented in the regulatory frameworks of the EU member
States. In this field Spain represents a positive example as a priority access
to the grid is always given to renewable energy source (including, of course,
photovoltaic power).
On average the renewable energy source lead times for the grid connection
are very high. In the photovoltaic sector the lead time can account for
almost a half of the lead time for the overall procedure.

Administrative barriers are generally recognized to be caused by two main
aspects:

a lack of knowledge of the European and national regulatory
frameworks
and
A lack of understanding of renewable energy technologies

In effect, besides the administrative barriers and bottlenecks, there are a
series of technical barriers that project developers and product
manufacturers continuously bear, such as the lack of standardization and
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testing procedures. Requirements, which often vary from utility to utility,
are not always transparent enough, and not uniformly applied.
Consequently, there are additional costs for manufacturers and project
developers to comply with these requirements.
Many European wide activities (e.g. EC projects) have underlined the
urgency need for a novel to standardize procedures and technical
requirements.
Landscape impact & geographical location
Generally speaking, the installation and operations of a system that exploit
solar energy through the photovoltaic conversion brings about an important
form of landscape transformation.
In fact, in presence of a given level of solar radiation, the existing
technologies offer a low level of conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic
cells and thus a remarkable physical dimension of such systems is usually
required (to give an idea a PV installation of 1MW that uses static structures
might require up to 2 hectares of land depending on several factors such as
the latitude of the area where the system is installed, the module tilt and so
forth). This required area must be highly enlarged if tracking techniques are
used.
Consequently, in approaching an investment in a PV system an investor
should also analyze the strict requirements requested by the local authorities
on the assessment of the environmental impact especially in the case of
historic sites and rural or mountain villages and areas.

The main landscape impacts of photovoltaic system are as follows:

Land use
Reduction of cultivable land
Fragmentation of the countryside
Plant degradation
Visual impact on the landscape
Interference between fauna and flora
Microclimate change
Glare
Electromagnetic fields
Construction phase impacts.

In this document a marginal area is defined as a land whose productivity is
scarce regardless of the fact that it is either rural or non-rural.
Investments in a photovoltaic system to be built in marginal areas can
benefit from a simplified system of rules set by the local government and
authorities unless these areas are located in areas environmentally protected
by the law. For instance, there are regional governments that have issued a
special regulation for reconciling the production of energy from renewable
sources with the safeguard of its regional territory encouraging the diffusion
of renewable energy sources plants. Some examples have been observed -
although with some differences- in some countries such as Italy and Spain.
By contrast, the marginality in merely geographic terms may represent a
factor of additional complexity for instance when a marginal area is located
far away from the nearest power line and may be divided by a private land
in the between.
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Lack of financial resources (public sector and private sector)
Financing is frequently a critical issue for investors especially in those cases
where the investments are made to install a small-sized PV system. In fact,
although for the investors they are considerable with a comparatively long
payback period for financial intermediaries such as banks the
investment volume is very small-scale and often not very interesting to
finance.
Further, if the investor is a public body (i.e. a municipality) another
constraint may be represented by the internal stability pact.
This section is aimed to describe the main financial tools that public and
private investors might be interested to use.

Preliminary, the two hypotheses to consider are the following:

The marginal area is owned by a municipality
Marginal area is owned by an individual or a private organization.

The local government such as the municipality can follow at least two
different models. On one hand, the municipalities can invest and operates
the facilities under its own responsibility (with equity capital or financial
debt). A municipality operating company is founded or may be the
municipalities utilities provide the work. On the other hand, a contractor
could build and operate the photovoltaic system. In this case the contractor
takes charge of planning, construction and operations and makes profit on
the sales of the electricity.
Below are described a couple of examples as to the investing models that
can be chosen in the case of the marginal area is owned by a municipality.
The type of investment depends on the role that a given municipality wants
to play in the project.
A first example refers to a public tender procedure. A municipality gives a
public notice for a new PVPP to be constructed on marginal lands under
public ownership and applicants propose to construct, operate and maintain
the new power system with a commitment regarding the decommissioning.
In such simple case, the winning applicant generates revenues by reselling
the electricity produced by the new system and obtaining the incentives
guaranteed by the law and/or local regulations. If economically possible, a
fraction of these revenues could go to the municipality which however will
continue not to play any role in the project development.
Likewise, a possible alternative is a cooperative venture between the public
and private sectors, built on the expertise of each partner, which best meets
clearly defined public needs. For instance, the municipality and project
developer may set up a joint venture in the project development phase.
After achieving all permits for the project, the public body may either sell its
shares in the project or continue its participation. In this case the
municipality plays a more active role within the project.

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When the auto financing is not possible or convenient, the main financial
tools are as follows:

Mortgage
Leasing
Public Project financing
Third party financier model

A mortgage is a loan secured by a property and paid in installments over a
set period of the time. This is a traditional way by which municipalities
have financed investments in PV though its use is often limited by the
internal stability pacts.
The leasing contract is an agreement by which an organization can obtain
the use of a certain fixed asset paying a series of contractual periodic
instalments. Depending on the type of leasing contract, in a given moment
in the future, the same organization may decide to buy it with a final bigger
payment. Although the leasing contract is relatively new in the public sector,
local government can use it to finance investments in PV.
The main advantage for a public body is that the leasing is less-capital than
purchasing and thus this option can help to overcome budgetary constraints
imposed by the internal stability pact. In fact, in the financial year in which
the work is assigned local government does not have to write in their
balance sheet the entire value of the contract but only the amount
corresponding to the overall annual installment.
Project financing (project finance) consists of a financial transaction
through which governments implement public works whose financial
burden is partially or wholly borne by a private organization. To develop the
project it uses debt and it is repaid from the funds generated by the activity
(based on a financial plan that can ensure self-financing). Very often, a
company conducting the project finance (sponsoring company) set up a
different corporation or other entity for the project to shield the company
from liabilities.

The three main important features of the project finance solution are the
following:

The project is developed to perform a specific operation
An independent unit is set up and it is separated from the
sponsoring company
The debt that rose for the project is usually non-recourse,
sometimes limited recourse, with regards to the sponsoring
company. This means the project itself is responsible for the debt

Project financing is often very complex and thus it is usually applied to
medium-big sized photovoltaic installation.

By the third party financier (TPF) model, the public body does not:

Make the upfront capital investment
Bear the installation and ongoing maintenance costs
19
In fact, all the above costs are borne by a third party in return for regular
periodic fee payments. The third party might also be an energy service
company (ESCO), like a utility providing energy services in return for fees.
In this way, the risks of PV and maintenance are efficiently allocated to a
party with greater PV expertise and which has greater financial resources.

The TPF model can be described as a combination of at least two elements:

A guarantee of the necessary finance;
Professional technical assistance.

Incentives

In all industry, investment requires capital expenditure to generate revenues
to cover costs. The renewable energy sector has much lower operating costs
but in proportion has higher capital costs to take into account. Therefore,
state and local governments usually try to take advantage of the various
incentives which exist in the marketplace to reduce the up-front capital
investment which is necessary to construct and install PVPPs.
This section explores the mechanisms that governments and municipalities
use to provide subsidizes and structure financing for PVPPs projects that
they own.
To expand renewable energy deployment and meet the investment gap
direct or indirect supports are necessary. Different instruments are available
ranging among those which can help to lower the cost of capital and
construction costs.
Support to cover the generating cost through revenues
Regulated prices
The term regulated prices is typically used to describe the Feed-in Tariff
mechanism (also known as FIT). These subsidies are payments to energy
producers for the renewable electricity they generate. They usually are
represented by a fixed financial payment per unit of electricity or heat
produced by a renewable energy source. The energy producers obtain the
payments for a long period (i.e. 20 years).
In Italy the new legal framework recently issued (Conto IV) confirms an
additional reward for those photovoltaic systems installed in marginal lands.
Similar examples are present in Spain although they are limited to regional
development policies. Unfortunately, in this country the FIT for on-ground
PV installations have recently been noticeably trimmed.
Regulated Premiums
Regulated premiums or feed-in premiums give to energy producers a fixed
financial payment per unit of electricity or heat produced by renewable
energy sources for the green value (in this scheme the producer receives the
market price for the physical energy produced). A combination of Feed-In
Tariffs and Feed-in Premiums is possible.
Quota obligations/certificates
Another possibility is that a given government may decide to impose a
minimum quota of renewable energy in the overall electricity generation.
20
This target can be met either through physical production or by purchasing
the so called green certificates.
The quota obligation system can be combined with tradable green
certificates and in this case the producer of green energy is paid for the
green certificates by those organizations that face the obligation.
Fiscal incentives
Although fiscal incentives are typically secondary instruments to support the
other instruments (such as feed-in tariffs) they play an important role in the
promotion of renewable energy sources. Possible examples of fiscal
incentives are tax credits and/or tax exemptions for investments in
renewable energy projects, investment subsidies, low interest loans and
further kinds of tax measures.
The shortcoming of this type of support is the instability. In fact, it is
usually influenced by the governments budgets.
Tendering scheme
The tendering scheme refers to a possible government call for a renewable
energy project. A call can be issued by other institutions as well. When
running a tender, the public body selects a project developer which is
usually offered a long term power purchasing agreement (PPA) at a
competitive price.
Support to reduce capital costs
Grants, R&D Grants, and Capital Grants
A grant is a funded aid often given for innovative projects. Likewise, R&D
grants are provided to research organizations and laboratories in order to
fund their research programmes in renewable energy technologies. The
purpose of these grants is to encourage research.
Yet, capital grants helps mainly small and medium sized enterprises which
usually cannot bear additional cost with the internal R&D budget - in
proving the potential of R&D innovations.
Contingent grants or loans
The main characteristic of a contingent grant is that it can be defined as a
subsidy which is converted into loans when a project turns out to be
successful. By contrast, it is treated as a grant in case of financial difficulties.
Contingent grants are more likely to be used once prototypes have proved
the technology to be profitable in real-market conditions.
Public Loans
By a public loan investor can have a cheaper access to capital thanks to the
fact that public funds are used to bear greater risk.
Private Equity funds
Private equity funds usually invest in the renewable energy sector for a long
term financial return. They can be defined as medium risk investors and
usually expect a relatively high return and focus on the later stages of
projects and mature technologies. Private equity funds also play an
important role in providing equity to project companies.
Venture capital
Venture can be considered a specific sub-segment of private equity
investment and play an important role in financing technology innovation,
with active involvement of the fund managers in the project. By definition,
venture capital targets high returns and for this reasons it is ready to bear a
high risk.
21

Mezzanine funding
Generally speaking, mezzanine funding is a means to gain funding for a
company which in the most of cases can come in the form of stand-alone
subordinate debt. It is frequently used to finance the expansion of existing
companies.
Guarantees
Guarantees can be seen as form of compensation to lenders and/or
investors in case of project developers default.
22
How to build an investment proposal for 1 mw pvpp in a
marginal area by an owner classified as public

This section covers the analysis of the most significant legal and
administrative issues concerning the implementation of 1 MW PVPP in a
marginal area by a public body.
With reference to the focused countries, its purpose is to suggest an analysis
of the issues as well as possible solutions, while illustrating, where
appropriate, the details of the existing regulations or those soon to be
introduced.

Initial Investigation

A public body (mainly Municipalities), which intend to develop a PVPP
Project (hereinafter the Project), prior to any other decision, has to
evaluate the existence of the necessary assumptions for the implementation
of the Project
First of all, as we are speaking about public bodies, it is necessary that the
implementation of the Project is of public interest, even locally intended.

Among all, the above evaluation may concern the relevant following issues:

Investments and financial resources
Legal implications regarding the structure of the Project
Technical investigation

Often public institutions (particularly at a local level) do not have all the
necessary financial resources to directly implement such investments. Their
main asset is mainly constituted by the ownership of the lands which could
be interested by the realization of the Project.
Therefore the lack of suitable financial resources affects the decision on the
legal modalities through which the Project has to be implemented.
Being the owner of the lands, a public body could decide to involve private
investors into the Project by means of a public tender.
The involvement of private investors could bring to efficiency level, while
the presence of a public body assures the safeguard of the public interest.
As a consequence, public body is completely relieved from charges related
to financing infrastructural works and to the operation of the Project with
their activities focusing on control-related aspects.
Regarding technical aspects, it is necessary to verify the characteristics of
available areas in order to understand how much could be the profit
generated by the PV installation.

23
Feasibility study

In order to have a preliminary investigation about the feasibility of a PVPP
we should also take into account some technical aspects. One could surely
find better working conditions (and therefore an improvement of
production of electricity), but before all one should know that the yield of a
PVPP is closely dependent on the type of PV system chosen.
It is intuitive that, in case the area for installing the PVPP is not coplanar to
the horizon, it is able to capture more light radiation when it is facing South
(in the direction that, at each latitude and longitude, represents the
direction of highest incidence of the sun). Reasonably good results are
achieved with deviations from the East to West (azimuth = angle ()
between the normal to the surface of the PV panel and the direction South)
within 45 , both East, and West.

Similarly, the slope of the PV panel (array) surface with respect to the
horizontal line (tilt = angle () between the horizontal and the surface of the
PV panel (array) ) influences the production of electricity.
The table below shows the percentage of yield compared to the strong
situation of maximum yield (optimum orientation and inclination), a PV
installation has at various tilt and azimuth. Of course these tables are
calculated for different longitudes corresponding to as many sites provided
for ground photovoltaic plants.

It is clear that the most efficient PV systems have an azimuth angle ()
contained in -45 ans + 45 degrees , and tilt between 20 and 40 (30 very
good).
To obtain the right tilt azimuth and orientation, we cannot be confident
only in general orientation of the available area with respect to the orbit of
the sun, but photovoltaic module must be fixed to the terrain (or roof) in
proper way .
Figure 1: Slope and orientation of a
PV generator (source: IDAE, 2002.
Instalaciones de Energa Solar
Fotovoltaica. Pliego de Condiciones
Tcnicas de Instalaciones Conectadas a
Red. IDAE, Madrid, p.53)
Table 2: Change in efficiency with
respect to Azimuth and Tilt angles
24
The most common types of ground fixings are:

Fixed or semi-fixed anchorage to the support structure anchored in
turn to the ground
Fixed or semi-fixed anchorage to the support structure anchored in
turn to concrete foundations
Solar tracking system (1 or 2 rotation axes)
Anchor the support structure only resting on the terrain soil with
concrete blocks fixing it to the ground
Adhesion to the surface (flexible)

The above mentioned characteristic could be more or less suitable in
different cases and different solution should be preliminary evaluated.
As anticipated, for the marginal areas it is usually possible to recommend a
specific combinations of PV panels, types of PV installation and anchorage
Landfills and waste dumps
Crystalline panels (poli-/mono-) or thin film (hard frame mounted)
modules are preferred anchored to support structures resting on the surface
involved, with particular attention to the characteristics of direction and
strength of the prevailing winds. Alternatively, it can be used thin film PV
modules on flexible support that lays on the areas surface.
Quarries and mines
It is important to not use support structures resting on the surface in the
frequent cases where surface is irregular and in case there are still working
activities inducing vibrations. In this case it is crucial that PV modules
would be strictly anchored to the ground. Type of anchorage depends on
the inclination and exposition of the area
Industrial wasteland
Various solutions could be possible. It is also possible to use structures
equipped with solar tracking system in order to increase the electricity
production up to 30% (this figure increases up to 40% in southern Europe
countries). Eventually using tracking techniques requires much more land
than static structures, so given the same area, fewer kWp could eventually
be installed with suntracking. In case PV modules would be installed in a
roof, it is possible to use flexible module glued on a plastic sheet. This
system has the advantage that in same condition could became a good
weatherproofing system that preserves the roof longer.
Contaminated areas
In some cases, it is necessary to prevent the percolation of rainfall into the
ground, with the primary aim not to transfer contaminants to the
groundwater below. In such cases, after appropriate preparation of works
and facilities for collecting and managing rainfall, may be functional to lay
flexible thin film modules, to plastic and flexible support that could become
a good watherproofing system.
Other areas
There are no specific indication for areas with limited access, denied,
unable, areas or military/civil airport, (either active or abandoned), and
other areas of respect. The basic parameters for an appropriate choice of
technology and type of installation are to be found in the types analyzed
above. Should be noted that in the empty airport areas or on surfaces of
former military areas most commonly installed PV systems are generally
those fixed polysilicon or thin film
25
Business Plan
The feasibility study for a photovoltaic system does not generally contain an
important part of study on economic sustainability as in a business plan. As
for every investment it is necessary to analyze costs and revenues, cash
flows and check the cost of the necessary funding for the construction of
the plant and assess the key financial indexes. In particular these are the
NPV, IRR and ROI.

First, we define briefly these financial indexes as follows:

NPV: Net Present Value, is the methodology by which one can
calculate the value of a series of discounted cash flows at a rate of
return defined so that these are consistent and comparable. In
practical terms it represents the cost-opportunity of the investment.
The rate of return is an important parameter to be defined for
photovoltaic systems. Since they represents a major investment, but
with low risk, we could use in our analysis the rate of 6% per year
IRR: It is the internal rate of return for which the NPV is zero.
Higher this index is, the better our investment gets, in economic
terms. For a given project, this index equals the actual interest rate
at which the project initial investment should be lent during its
useful life to achieve the same profitability. From an economic point
of view, the PV system should be accepted if the IRR exceeds a
profitability threshold fixed by the future owner. It is widely agreed
that this is one of the most easily understandable and
straightforward profitability index for investors
ROI: it represents the profitability of the investments regardless of
the source of capital used for its implementation.
ROE: It is the profitability index that represents the profitability of
the investment compared with the shareholders equity
PAYBACK PERIOD: It is the minimum payback period calculated
regardless the adjustment with the rate of return

For the evaluation of the investment many other financial ratios can be
used, but surely these are good indicators for an economic evaluation in a
feasibility study.
For the evaluation of an investment, cash flows are needed in order to
calculate such indexes. Now we shall explain briefly what are the costs and
revenues of a photovoltaic system.
Costs
We distinguish first of all costs into two main categories:

1. Construction costs to be incurred only at the time of the project
2. Operating costs to be incurred with constant frequency throughout
the operating life of the project that normally reaches 20 years and
over

The construction of a photovoltaic system requires a high initial investment
cost but very low operating costs. The cost of building the plant depends
mainly on the size and type of installation. With the increasing of the plant
26
size the cost per unit of installed capacity decreases, both for the purchasing
of components and for the construction costs.
The main cost items related to the implementation are the following:

In the case of participation in the construction of a public body, the cost of
the public call must be considered as cost of construction even if it is not
influent in economic terms.
Another cost to support, comparable to the cost of implementation, is the
cost of decommissioning. At the end of its life cycle, the plant must be
dismantled, and the decommissioning costs must be taken into account.

The estimation of these costs is not always accurate for the following
reasons:

The operation will take place after at least 20 years and to date has
not yet visibility' of the unit cost of disposing of the modules
The unit cost depends strongly on the anchoring structure of the
modules

However, we estimate a value ranging from 80 / kWp to 150 / kWp.
Operating costs are much lower than the cost of the project and can be
invariable or variable with the production of electricity even if the last case
is very rare.
Among the other things, the operating costs must include insurances against
damage or theft, routine maintenance and repairs, consulting and
administrative management, financial charges, and the periodic cleaning of
the modules.
As a final note, we remember that the taxes becomes a factor in the budget
that reduces the net income received from the PV system, in case it is
applicable.
Operating costs, because they are incurred throughout the life of the
installation, must be adjusted for inflation, and for countries within the
European Community we currently could estimate an inflation at around
2% per annum.

We analyze below the individual cost items in the income statement:

Charges for use of third party assets: are the locations and / or cost
on the surface rights. The incidence is generally very low and in the
case of marginal areas, the value tends to be nil
Costs for maintenance can be generally estimated to 1% of the
investment cost for each year. They are divided in both ordinary and
extraordinary maintenance (usually the replacement of inverters)
Cost for Cleaning: The panels must be cleaned for ensuring the
maximum efficiency ' as possible. The incidence is estimated at
Table 2
27
0.1% per annum of the investment cost with a minimum of 1,000
per year
Administrative and consultancies: are due to management of active
and passive invoices for payments of electricity flows and feed in
tariff if it is present. The estimated cost is 0.1% of investment with a
minimum of 3,000 per year
Cost of Insurance: this cost can be estimated between 0.1% and
0.2% of initial investment with a minimum of 2,000 for each year
of insurance. There are several forms of insurance. Given the phrase
"full risk", which covers mainly:

o Direct damage to the system as a result of events such as the
house fire, hail, vandalism and theft of the panels of the
plant.
o Damage to third parties, when an accidental breakage of
components causes injury or damage to property of others.
o Indirect damage to the system following discontinuation or
decrease in production of electrical energy: in these cases
there is a daily allowance for reimbursement of lost profits

Financial charges: represents the interest portion of mortgage
payment
Depreciation: depending on the choice of the financial structure
Lease: leasing instalments if you have chosen this form of supply of
capital

Revenues
Revenues in the case of construction of a photovoltaic system can be direct
or indirect.

Direct revenues are normally as following:

1. Incentives such feed in tariffs (if any): they are recognized by the
competent authority on electricity produced by the photovoltaic
system. Prices are generally differentiated according to the size, the
type of installation and there is often the possibility of using further
increases in price in case of promoting remediation of asbestos
roofs or increased energy efficiency of buildings
2. Enhancement from the electricity produced by the plant: the sale to
the market in various forms given by the various national
regulations create a direct revenue to be included in the financial
statements of the photovoltaic system

Indirect revenues are rather the absence of the costs for the supply of
electricity that is consumed in the same site of the project, in the manner
permitted by the different national regulations in the various partner
countries.
Consequently, the revenue generated by the photovoltaic system are
differentiated depending on many variables and factors linked with the
technical characteristics of the PVPP.
28
Therefore, further important parameters in order to correctly estimate the
revenues may be as follows:

Decay of the performance of photovoltaic modules: between 0.8
and 1.2% per year
Geographical position is required to estimate the average radiation
and annual power producibility
Estimated increase in annual energy costs in order to properly assess
both the direct revenue from the sale of energy, and the indirect
revenue benefit resulting from the lack of spending on electricity
supply

Income Statement
Now the simulation of the income statement is the main tool for the
calculation of financial indexes and assessment of annual cash flows.
The income necessary to our analysis should not be compiled as an element
of the budget, but is intended to analyze the principal cash flows and
reclassify them, as noted above, in order to understand easily the factors
that influence the profitability and sustainability of an investment.
Financial indexes will then be calculated and the payback period must be
verified. Below we summarize a pattern that a body classified as public
could use. Given the constraints to own investments when dealing with
these subjects as also indicated in this guide, the assumption is to fully
finance the investment through financial leasing. Therefore, the leasing fee
will be treated as the other costs as if it was a normal rent. We will see
therefore that in this case, the depreciation and interest are zero because the
system created will be 'owned' by the leasing company until the end of the
leasing instalments. For our analysis we will consider also, as often happens,
that the final redemption fee is zero.

Table 3: Incomes and costs
29
In order to address this analysis it will be necessary to make assumptions
valid for the duration of the investment. Here are the main ones:

With this background, in Table 5 we can analyse the flows using the method
shown above.

We note that for each year there will be net profit, which confirms the fact
that flows are always positive and sufficient to hang up the investment as
shown in the chart below:

Table 5
Table 4:
* This is a typical figure for well-designed
static PPVPPs in Central Europe
countries. Higher yields (up to 1500 )
can be reached in southern Europe
countries.
** assuming crystalline silicon
30
-3'000
-2'000
-1'000
0
1'000
2'000
3'000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Net Financial Position

The payback period is 10 years, calculated as the point at which the sum of
annual cash flows offset the initial investment.
We also note that the period 21 there is a decrease in net financial position.
This is due to the decommissioning of the plant that will have necessarily be
performed at the end of the life of the investment.
We summarize below the other financial indexes useful in the overall
evaluation:

The ROI, which in the table above is for the first year of activities, is
certainly satisfactory.
ROE is also very satisfactory, so the first impression is that the investment
is positive. This impression is also confirmed by NPV that shows the
generation of a surplus of 517'000 over a possible return of equivalent
investment and an IRR which shows very high values.
We repeat the analysis increasing and decreasing by 10% the incentive rates
and checking what the change leads to in terms of the same financial rates:

We notice immediately that the change of 10% causes an increase or
decrease of change scores; increasing or decreasing, amplified, create a
leverage effect.
We repeat the same analysis by changing only the cost of the plant.

Figure 2
Table 6
Table 7
31

Even in this case the leverage is present and bit more pronounced.
We see now the impact on NPV and IRR of the decommissioning costs to
be incurred at the end of the project.
We estimate the cost of decommissioning in 100 / kWp installed, to be
discounted back at the present value (2% per year) at the end of the PVPP
life. The differences in the NPV and IRR are negligible. This makes us
conclude that the decommissioning is not a parameter discriminating the
sustainability of investment.

Authorization process at a regional EU level

This paragraph contains a brief description of the authorization process
provided by the applicable laws of the EC Nations interested by the Project.
It will summarize also the differences among the national legislations. These
authorization procedures are updated at May 2011.
Italian authorization process
Since its adoption on 29 December 2003, Legislative Decree no. 387 has
provided the fundamental rules on authorization process for renewable
energy plants.

The above Decree has been adopted pursuant to the Directive no.
2001/77/EC and it provides the following procedures:

Single Authorization =>Legislative Decree no. 387/2003 provides
under art. 12 that the construction and operation of electricity
generating plants fuelled by renewable energy sources (RESs) is
subject to a Single Authorization, which is issued by the competent
Regional Government or the corresponding Provincial Government
with delegated powers, in compliance with the applicable legislation
on the protection of the environment, the national landscape and
the historic and artistic heritage. When required, it offers an
alternative to spatial planning instruments. The issue of such
Authorization will entitle the person to which it is issued to build
and operate a plant in accordance with the approved project
Start-Up Declaration (DIA) => The DIA is under the responsibility
of the competent municipality and is a document to be filed to the
Table 8
Table 9
32
Sportello Unico dellEdilizia (a one-stop shop for the
construction sector) together with the prescribed technical annexes
and any further authorizations or permits. Legislative Decree no.
387/2003 (under Art. 12) provides for the opportunity to proceed
with a DIA for plants up to 20 kW

Terms and content of the above procedures have been modified few times.
Recently, the National Guidelines (Ministerial Decree 10.08.2010), adopted
by the Italian Government, aims to coordinate national legislation related to
the authorization procedures and to ensure a correct installment of the
plants on the territory. Based on its provisions, Regions had to adapt their
regulations with the Guidelines within 90 days from its publication.

In particular, the Guidelines specify that the DIA shall be required for the
following photovoltaic plants:

Mini photovoltaic plants with a generation capacity lower than 20
kW
Photovoltaic plants on the building coverings with panel surface not
higher than the surface of the relevant building coverings

The Decree no. 28/2011 implemented the Directive 2009/28/EC of the
European Parliament and Council dated 23 April 2009, on the promotion
of the use of energy generated from renewable sources, setting forth the
amendment and subsequent abrogation of Directives 2001/77/EC and
2003/30/EC, published on the Official Gazette on 28 March 2011, and
entered into force the day following its publication.
The Decree was enacted by the Government in order to implement law no.
96 of 4 June 2010 (EC Law for 2009).
Under Article 17 of EC Law, implementing the Directive, the Italian
legislator has set forth the principles and the guidelines which the
Government should have followed enacting the relative Legislative Decree.

Under Legislative Decree no. 28/2011, the installation of and operation of
photovoltaic power plants has been facilitated including a series of
administrative measures:

The DIA has been replaced by the simplified authorization process
which follows similar lines but allows the applicant to start the
works immediately after having filed to the relevant public body the
documents requested by the applicable law
Though non-integrated plants may only use the Simplified
Procedure, if their capacity does not exceed 20 KWp (as provided
by National Guidelines), the Regions and the autonomous
Provinces can extend this threshold from a minimum of 50 KWp to
a maximum of 1 MW

The above means that the authorization process applicable to the Project
depends on the legislation of the Region where it will be located. For
example, in case the Project will be done by a Municipality in the Region of
Abruzzo, the simplified authorization procedure will be applicable, having
33
the Region of Abruzzo extended to 1 MW the threshold provided for
PVPP projects.
Legislative Decree no. 28/2011 also states that public bodies which intend
to lease a public area to a third subject in order to develop a PV project
have to respect the rules set for by the Legislative Decree 3 April 2006, no.
163 which implemented into the national legislation the EC Directives on
public procurement.
Regarding regulatory issues, the recent Fourth ContoEnergia (Ministerial
Decree 5 May 2011) providing, for each of the three semesters in 2011 and
2012, a budget of cost, exclusively referred to large PV plants, introduces a
complex system of ranking and access restrictions for Large PV plants
which will start operations after 31 August 2011.

a. With reference to the Project, it may be important to underline that
Large PV plants are defined as all those that do not fall in any of
the categories of small plants, which include also: Ground-
mounted PV plants not exceeding 200 kWp using the net-metering
system
b. PV plants realized on buildings or areas owned by the public
administration as a consequence, PVPP projects which will be
implemented on areas owned by public body wont entitle any duty
concerning Large PV plants, even if the project would exceed 1 MW

Furthermore, the Fourth Conto Energia includes special increases in the
tariff for certain typologies of PV plants. Among the all, it has been
established a 5% premium for PV plants managed by municipalities with
fewer than 5 thousand inhabitants or ground-mounted plants on brown
field sites, landfills, exhausted quarries, generally speaking, areas classified as
marginal.
With reference to the connection to the grid process, with Deliberation
ARG/elt 125/10, the Authority for Electric Energy and GAS have
published a revised Unified Text for Active Connections (so called TICA
- All. A to the Deliberation).
The modifications aim to introduce swifter connection procedures, more
transparency in the communications between the grid operators and project
developers and introducing provisions concerning the requests of
connection in areas (or lines) where the capacity of the grid is critical.
The latter point was supposedly aimed at fighting speculative connection
request. In fact, it has been established that applicants ha to pay guarantees
for systems falling into the so called critical areas or critical lines.
Finally note that as from December 1st, 2010 the procedure for the request
of the incentives is done exclusively through the GSE web portal. The new
procedure aims at speeding-up the procedures for the admission to the
Conto Energia incentives and improves the efficiency of the service.
Greek authorization process
The first Greek legislation for PV plants has been introduced in 2006 (Law
no. 3468/06) providing feed-in-tariffs regime and setting the details for
authorization of PV plants.
In mid-2010, a new RES Law (no. 3851/2010) has been set in force aimed
to remedy some of the drawbacks of the previous authorization processes
for PV deployment.
34

A series of Ministerial Decisions followed in autumn 2010, which further
simplify the authorization procedures for PV. More specifically:

new applications for large PV systems can now be filed to the
Regulatory Authority for Energy (such applications were frozen in
2008)
production (electricity generation) license is not needed for PV
plants smaller than 1 MW
installation of PV systems on prime agricultural land is now allowed
with certain limitations
150 /kWp bank guarantee is needed for ground-mounted systems
up to 1 MWp before the signing of a grid connection contract

Following the above changes, there was a new wave of applications and a
grid connection bottleneck has been created.
Most of the improvements are expected in practice, being necessary to
adopt the actuative Decrees.

Actually, according to the provision of the new RES Law, it can be
summarized the following authorization scheme:

PV Plants > 1 MW: Electricity Generation License;
PV Plants < 1 MW: Formal Exemption thereof;
PV Plants > 500 kW: Environmental Terms Approval;
PV Plants < 500 kW: Exempted from ETA but verified;
PV Plants exempted from Generation License also exempted from
Installation and Operation License;
PV Plants with Generation License require also Installation and
Operation License following trial operation and inspections.

Based on the above scheme, according to Law no. 3851/2010 on
Accelerating the Development of Renewable Energy Sources to Deal with
Climate Change, a license is still required for production of electricity from
renewable energy sources. By amendment of the previous law, the license is
no longer issued by the Minister for the Economy, but directly by the
Regulatory Authority (hereinafter RAE).
The license is still issued on the basis of the criteria set out in the law such
as national security, public health, energy performance, project maturity,
maturity of the technical installation, fulfilment of national laws provisions
on spatial planning.

The authorization process is characterized by the following legal steps:

a. Determination by RAE, in cooperation with the grid operator, or in
cooperation with the operator for the islands not connected to the
integrated system, having as object the connection point. The above
determination must be issued within 20 days from the submission of
the application
b. RAE examines whether the criteria are met, as well as the
completeness of the file submitted, within 2 months from the
35
submission of the application. The submitted file is deemed to be
complete if no additional documentation is requested within 30 days
c. The final decision will be published on the RAEs website and it will
be noticed to the Minister for Environment which has to express its
consent within 20 days
d. The license is issued for a period of 25 years and its terms can be
renewed once according to the above timing
e. After having obtained the license, the applicant has to request the so
called installation permit, which has to be issued within 30
months from the grant of the production license, otherwise the
production license expires
f. The entitlement of the production license allows the applicant to
obtain the other permits such as the connection to the grid and the
decision on environmental compatibility (known as EPO)
g. Finally, the grid operator (known as DESMIE) has to undertake
all the necessary measures aimed to connect the plant

In conclusion, it can be assumed that by means of the new Law on RES
(no. 3851/2010), the legislative framework on authorization process has
been deeply amended by the described provisions. This has determined a
reduction of the authorization timing from 36-60 months to 8-10 months.
Polish authorization process
The notion of renewable energy sources (RES) is gaining a clear
recognition within Polands energy and environmental policies.

The most important national act in the area of RES development is the
Energy law dated the 10
th
of April 1997. The Energy law regulates the entire
energy sector, however it also provides for rules applicable specifically to
RES, including:

Special rules with regard to the connection to the power grid as well
as transmission of electric energy generated by power plants using
RES
Sale of electric energy generated by power plants using RES;
The issuance and trade in the certificates of origin (so-called green
certificates) issued in respect of renewable energy

The system of the certificates of origin (so-called green certificates) has
been provided for in detail in the Regulation of the Minister of Economy
dated 14 August 2008, establishing detailed provisions on the obligation to
acquire certificates of origin and submit them for collection, the obligation
to pay a compensation fee, the obligation to purchase electric energy and
heat generated from renewable energy sources and the obligation to prove
that the amount of energy generated from the respective source of energy
stated is accurate.
Technical requirements regarding the connection to the grid and operation
of power plants using RES are comprised in the Regulation of the Minister
of Economy of 4 May 2007 on detailed conditions of functioning of the
electric energy system.

36
One of the mechanisms implemented by the Energy law in order to
promote renewable energy generation is the trade of certificates of origin,
which in other countries are often referred to as green certificates.
According to Article 9e of the Energy law, the electric energy generated at
renewable energy sources shall be certified to have originated there by
means of the so-called certificate of origin. Energy enterprises producing
or trading in electric energy, which deliver energy to end users, have a
choice between:

Obtaining of such certificates and applying for their redemption at
the Energy Regulatory Authority (ERA)
or
Payment of a so-called substitution charge (buy-out price)
calculated in accordance with a formula provided for by the Energy
law

The above obligation is fulfilled when the redeemed certificates, or the paid
substitution charges, reach a pre-determined target share in a given energy
enterprises yearly sales to end users.
Certificates of origin are issued by the President of ERA to energy
enterprises producing electric energy derived from RES, confirming inter
alia the amount of renewable energy produced over a certain period of
time.
The certificates are issued by the President of ERA upon an application of
the energy enterprise within 14 days of the date of receipt of the application.
The application needs to be submitted via the local electricity system
operator, within 45 days of the day ending the period when the electric
energy, which the application concerns, was produced. The whole
procedure is subject to the Administrative Procedure Code regarding the
issue of certificates.
Concerning the production of energy generated from RES, the Energy law
requires an authorization issued by the President of ERA:

The Authorization is granted to entities which:

Are incorporated (or have residence) in an EU member state or
EFTA member state being a signatory of the agreement on the
European Economic Area, or in Switzerland
Has sufficient financial funds or is able to document the capacity to
obtain such funds, offering warranty of a regular carrying out of
activity
Has technical capabilities offering warranty of a regular carrying out
of activity
Ensures employment of personnel having adequate qualifications, as
provided for by the Energy law
Has obtained a relevant zoning decision

Authorizations are granted for a definite time, between 10 and 50 years,
unless an applicant moves for a shorter license.
With reference to the authorization process of a PV plant, the following
scheme summarizes the main steps:

37
1 Stage
(A) Localization of the investment right to the real property
- Preliminary Master Plan
Adopted by a municipality council it provides for general rules of commune
spatial development, including in particular directions and outlines for
development and use of the land.
- Local Master Plan
Adopted by a municipality council. Provides for the intended use of the real
properties located on the municipalitys territory. Important point of
reference while planning the localization of the investment.
- Zoning Decision or Decision on Location of a Public
Investment
Zoning Decision is issued only in case of lack of the Local Master Plan. It
defines types of facilities and detailed terms and conditions for the
development of real property. The Zoning Decision should be applied for
and obtained by the investor. Instead of Zoning Decision, the investor can
apply for Decision on Location of a Public Investment, provided that the
investment is publicly significant (e.g. construction of power transmission
cables or installations).

(B) Right to the real property
Ownership
Perpetual Usufruct
Lease
Usufruct
Real Estate Easement
Transmission Easement

2 Stage
(A) Environmental Procedure
- Decision on Projects Environmental Conditions
In order to obtain the Decision, the motion to the relevant local authority
should be submitted. It is required to attach certain information, regarding
in particular: (i) type, scale and location of the project, (ii) the real property,
(iii) forecast quantity of water, fuels and energy used, (iv) technology used,
(v) potential plants on the real property.
The investor should also inform about measures of environmental
protection to be applied while implementing the project. It includes:
Types and forecast quantity of substances or energy emitted to the
environment
Possible cross-border environnemental impact
Areas protected under the Nature Protection Act
Areas located within the limits of the projects significant impact

38
3Stage
(A) Connection Conditions. Power Grid Agreement.
- Obtaining the Connection Conditions
Key point for the investment;
Essential for obtaining the building permit;
Recently introduced changes to the Energy Law.
- Obligations of the distribution/transmission system operator
(the Operator)
The Operator is obligated to conclude the power grid agreement,
based on the equal treatment of the applicants, if there are technical
and economic conditions for connection and the applying investor
fulfils the terms and conditions for the connection to the grid,
The Operator is obligated to provide for implementation and
financing of the entire construction and expansion of the grid,
including the needs to connect the entities applying for connection,
The Operator is obligated to prepare and disclose in Internet (as
well as in its seat) complete and monthly refreshed information
about:
I. entities applying for connection (voltage exceeding 1kV);
II. localization of such connections, dates of issuing the
connection conditions, signing power grid agreements and
commencement of providing energy,
III. Amounts of available connection power.

(B) Building Permit
Determines terms and conditions for the construction works.
The investor presents a motion together with all required
documentation, e.g. construction design project, decision on
projects environmental conditions, zoning decision (if necessary),
connection conditions;
Building permit expires if:
I. The works have not been commenced before the end of 3
years since the decision became final
II. The works stopped for more than 3 years
Amendment to the Polish Energy Law entered into force in March 2010.
The main objective of the amendment of the previous law was to stop
speculative reservation of connection capacities. Following measures are
foreseen in the law:
a. Introduction of deposit payments for the connection of RES
systems to the grid (deposit payment to be made within 7 days after
requesting the issuance of Grid Connection Conditions). A deposit
of up to 30.000 PLN per megawatt of planned connection power
(as defined by the energy law) can be requested by the grid operator.
The deposit payment cannot exceed the connection fee and in case
of excess the utility, that is to perform the grid connection, shall
return the difference with legally defined interest, accounted since
the day of the payment
b. A copy of the local Land Development Plan must be submitted to
the grid operator together with the grid connection request. In case
no such plan exists, the grid operator must be provided with a
decision regarding the conditions for the development of the area
39
by the local authority for the site where the PV system is to be
installed
In Poland the Energy Regulation Office (URE) has recently published on
its website a very clear description of the application process for obtaining a
license for the production of electricity.
Spanish Authorization process
According to applicable Spanish Law, each Autonomous Community has
individually regulated the industrial, urban planning and environmental
authorizations and permits required to set up a solar plant.
However, it can be envisaged a kind of the authorization scheme which is
followed in all of the Autonomous Communities.

National law requires the following authorizations to set up a solar plant
under its jurisdiction:

a. Administrative authorization of the installations project (building
permit, environmental consent and so on)
b. Grid connection approval
c. Operation permit.

This scheme, based on the national regulations, is generally followed in the
regulations of the Autonomous Communities which have regulated the
authorization procedure for these installations.
Tough the national framework is very clearly defined, sometimes practice by
regional authorities is more complex; specific regulations and handling in
practice may differ considerably from region to region.

However it is possible to summarize the following scheme:

At least 5 authorizations; there are three different areas where
authorizations are required respectively building permission, plant
authorization (prior and final), registration as RES producer under
special conditions of rgimen especial (prior and final), grid
connection and feed-in contract
Number of authorities involved: at least 3, local authorities for
building permission, regional authorities for plant authorization
(prior and final) and for RES registration (prior and final), local grid
operator/utility for grid access and feed-in contract
Timing of authorization process: 46 months

Figure 3: Example of
authorization process in Spain
provided by the local regulation of
Andalusia Region
40

Recently, with respect to photovoltaic energy, the Spanish

The Government approved, on 19 November, the Royal Decree
1565/2010, which amends the regulatory regime for photovoltaic energy as
well as certain aspects regarding the renewable energy regime.

Royal Decree 1565/2010 has amended the economic regime contained in
Royal Decree 1578/2008 for photovoltaic installations in operation, putting
energy into the grid and registered in the Administrative Registry of
Producers under the special regime (Registro Administrativo de
Instalaciones de Produccin en Rgimen Especial - RAIPRE), after 30
September 2008, and has reduced the feed-in tariffs as follows:

45% reduction in the feed-in tariff for ground-based solar
photovoltaic installations;

These reductions will apply to the feed-in tariffs of the next round that will
be included in the pre-assignation registry following the approval of Royal
Decree 1565/2010. From then on, the tariffs for the subsequent rounds will
be based on the previous reduced tariff and calculated according to the
formula established in Royal Decree 1578/2008.
As regards photovoltaic installations in operation, putting energy into the
grid and registered in the RAIPRE before 30 September 2008, Royal
Decree 1565/2010 has also amended their economic regime by repealing
the collection by these installations of a feed-in tariff after 25 years of
operation.
Royal Decree 1565/2010 has brought in other modifications to the
regulatory regime of renewable energies in Spain, mainly technical aspects
common to photovoltaic, including a definition of a substantial change in
the installations.
If a substantial change occurs in the installations (because of the
substitution of the equipment) the start-up date for the installation (or at
least for the substituted equipment) will be considered to be the new one
for purposes of the economic regime. Hence, they will not be entitled to
collect the feed in tariff set in the previous economic regime they were
included within, but instead the feed-in tariff applicable to the current
economic regime on the date of the modification of the equipment.
Last, the Royal Law Decree 14/2010 recently passed, in December 2010-
has limited the annual amount of electricity (kWh) per kW (this unit refers
to inverter power, not to PV generator power) that can be sold to the grid
at the price given by the FIT. This amount (kWh/kW) varies depending on
the zone of Spain on which the PVPP is located (higher irradiation profiles
imply more allowed kWh per kW to be sold on an annual basis) and it
increases if tracking techniques are used. For instance, only 1,632 kWh/kW
per year are allowed to be sold to the grid at the price given by the FIT in
Jan (latitude 37N) if a static structure is used. This figure increases up to
2,204 kWh/kW per year if two-axis tracking is used.
41
Slovak Authorization process
The authorization process on photovoltaic power plants in the Slovakia is
based essentially on the fulfillment by the owner of the plant of the requests
stated by:

The administrative offices(Regional and local);
The distribution Electric Company of the Region (Three regional
companies carry out electricity distribution to final consumers in
Slovakia: ZSE-Distribcia (www.zse.sk) - SSE-Distribcia
(www.sse.sk) - VSE-Distribcia (www.vsds.sk);
The authority for transmission system (SEPS - www.sepas.sk).

Before starting the construction process of an electric power plant with a
peak power in the range >= 100kWp, authorization must be fulfilled from
the Ministry of Economy and the authority for transmission system SEPS.
The first step is to prepare a certified connection study where it is possible
to verify that in that place there is the possibility to feed the energy into the
existing grid, and to reserve the capacity needed from the electric
distribution company of the Region: during this phase, a design of the plant
must be provided to the
Electric Distribution Company of the Region. The electric distribution
company evaluates the best solution for the insertion of the electric power
in the existing grid. The solution can be extremely easy (in the case of
enough existing power lines available) or more sophisticated (new lines
must be provided). With these two things is possible to ask the
authorizations to build to the Ministry of Economy and the authority for
transmission system SEPS. For a low power level plant with dimension
below 100kWp authorization from the Ministry of Economy and Sepsis not
needed but it is required to reserve the capacity needed from the
distribution electric company of the Region preparing a study of connection
and a design of the plant.
Before constructing a building, first a planning permit (also known as a
zoning permit) and then a construction permit must be obtained. Once
construction is finished, a use permit is required before the building can be
put into use.
Planning permits are issued by the local Building Office and are valid for
two years after they come into force (although they do remain valid after
two years where an application for a construction permit has been
submitted). The applicant does not need to own the land but must have
some right over it, such as a long lease.
Planning permits set out the permitted scope of the proposed building
project, including conditions for its construction, the location where the
building should be constructed and any requirements for project
documentation. Conditions can also be attached, to protect the public
interest and, in particular, the planning and zoning objectives of the
municipality or state. These include a time schedule, measures protecting
environmental, architectural and planning interests and any issues raised
during the planning process (e.g. by a third party accepted as a participant
by the Building Office).
The entire process has to be begun again if there are any changes to the
project documentation or to the purpose of the intended construction.
42
These are known as change proceedings. However, minor changes can be
dealt with in the construction permit process as long as they comply with
the conditions imposed in the original planning permit.

Construction permits are issued by the Building Office to allow
construction work to be undertaken. They must be applied for within the
two-year window of the planning permit. The construction permit will lapse
where the builder does not begin construction within two years after it
comes into force. Once issued, it is possible to amend it without having to
repeat the process. Construction permits set out:

The conditions for the construction and use of the building
General technical requirements
Relevant legislative and technical standards
Conditions imposed by relevant authorities
Issues raised during the planning proceedings (e.g. by third parties)
Conditions for the protection of the public interest, health and
environment
The time period for the building to be completed
Any other issues affecting the project

In the very final process of the authorization, a definitive design of the
entire plant must be provided to the distribution company and they must
approve it.
Use permits are issued once the construction of the PV plant is finished, to
confirm that the Building Office is satisfied that the building process has
been carried out correctly and that the building is suitable for its designated
use. Buildings cannot be put into use without a valid use permit. The use
permit is also the basis for acquiring the registration at the cadastral registry.

Austrian Authorization process
The regulatory regime relating the authorization of renewable energy plants,
with particular reference to solar ones, has been subject to various
amendments in the recent years.

The construction of a power plant may be subject to the following permits:

a. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) => it is the
Authorization procedure under the Federal Environmental Impact
Assessment Act (UVPGesetz). The EIA procedure constitutes a
combined permitting procedure that replaces other applicable
regulatory permitting procedures. The provincial government of the
federal Province, where the solar plant is to be located has
competence for the EIA procedure. Under the EIA Act, the
provincial government has to decide on an application within nine
months after submission of an application. The decision of the
provincial government is subject to appeal to the Environment
Regulatory Tribunal (Umweltsenat). Taking into consideration the
preparation of all relevant documents, the permitting procedure can
last up to two years or even more.
43
b. Building Permit => Setting up a solar plant will in most cases
require a permit under applicable building laws. Building laws fall
within the sole competency of the federal provinces of Austria.
Therefore, regulations regarding the construction and operation of a
building differ across the provinces of Austria. Generally speaking,
provincial building laws contain rules regarding the construction of
the building and the administrative permitting procedure. The
permitting procedure can usually be classified in three steps:
The issuance of a declaration on the construction site
(Bauplatzerklrung)
The issuance of a building permit prior to commencement
of the construction works (Baubewilligung)
and
The issuance of an operating permit after completion of the
construction works (Bentzungsbewilligung)

The competent authority in the permitting procedure is usually the mayor
of the relevant municipality.

Energy permits => the relevant competence on electricity
regulation is entitled mostly by the Federal State (Bund), which has
competence for enacting the framework legislation in the electricity
sector, and the Federal Provinces (Lnder) of Austria, which are
responsible for the implementing legislation.

The Federal State has approved the Federal Electricity Act, which contains
the main and general provisions of law and sets out the legislative
framework to be further specified by the nine Austrian Federal Provinces.
The Federal Provinces have issued local regulation pursuant to the
legislative framework provided by the Federal Electricity Act. Therefore,
the Austrian legal structure regulating electricity is somehow various.
As a general rule, it can be assessed that the provincial regulations provide
an authorization process for the construction and operation of solar plants
on the basis of a binding principle: the plant must not negatively affect the
life and health of human beings.
The authorization procedure usually refers to regulatory requirements in the
areas environmental protection, zoning, water management, forestry
management, public traffic, and energy efficiency.
The relevant authority issuing a permit under the provincial electricity
statutes is the respective provincial government or district authority.
As to solar plants, all provincial regulations provide also for a facilitated
permitting procedure which vary from province to province and could
determine shortened decision period for the administrative authority (e.g.,
three months rather than six months as stipulated by general rules of
administrative law).
So, Austrian legislative framework is characterized by a complexity of
planning process being widely decentralized. In practice conditions may
differ between the 9 provinces.

44
However, numbers of permissions required are at least 5:

Plant authorization
Grid connection
Registration as eco-energy plant
If any, specific building permission by provincial government
In certain areas further special permissions are required (for historic
monuments, environmental heritage, etc.)

Number of authorities involved: at least 3 (provincial government, local grid
operator/utility, and one of the three local green power balance group
representatives (GPBGR).
With reference to the timing of the authorization process, the average lead
time for permission procedures may be considered among 410 months.
Obviously, it may differ considerably from project to project (plant size,
environment, etc.) and from province to province.

Legal considerations on content of the public tender

As above mentioned, the most efficient way to implement the Project is to
involve private investors through a public tender.
The tender should have as object the construction and operation of 1 MW
PVPP to be located on a marginal area owned by the public body.
Regarding real estate issues, the ownership of the area will be still entitled by
the public body while the private investor (hereinafter the Concessionary)
will obtain right of surface on the lands by means of the public tender.

The economic and financial equilibrium of the tender is based on the
following terms:

1. The Concessionary obtains revenues from:
a. Granted incentives
b. The sale of the electricity produced.
2. The Concessionary has to pay a concession fee which is calculated
on the basis of:
a. Concession of the surface right of the land
b. Concession of the plant management
c. Receivables assignment agreement between the
concessionary and the Municipality

Furthermore, the public body could provide the concession contract with a
clause according to which the concessionary assumes the duty to set up for
free works reducing the environmental impact of Project.
The private investor, on the behalf on the public body, will take care of the
authorization process of the Project before the relevant Authorities such as
the ones in charge to issue the technical connection of the plant to the
public electric grid.

45
Call publication and evaluation

With reference to the Project, as already underlined, the public tender has as
object the construction and operation of 1 MW PVPP to be located on a
marginal area owned by the public body.
Also in the examined case, the basic underlying principles of the European
public procurement regime will apply (i.e., transparency, non-discrimination,
equal treatment and proportionality).

There are three main types of procedures through which the public body
could move further for the implementation of the Project:

a. The open procedure
b. The restricted procedure
c. The negotiated procedure

The open procedure is characterized by the fact that the call for tenders
directly requests the interested parties to submit the offer. On the contrary,
in the restricted procedure, the awarding authority will start by soliciting a
simple manifestation of interest, after which it will select only those subjects
satisfying certain requisites and request them to submit an offer following
the requirements set out in the tender rules documents. The aim of such
procedure simply consists in the pre-selection of the potential bidders.
With regard to the negotiated procedure, under EC procurement law, it is
characterized by a certain degree of flexibility, in terms of a limited capacity
for the participants to discuss and/or negotiate with the awarding authority
the conditions as set out in the tender documentation.
It is also worth mentioning that below a certain threshold, most of the EC
Countries do not provide for any specific rules concerning awarding
procedure.
However, taking in consideration the economic impact of the Project, it
would be recommendable the application of the open procedure; in fact on
one hand it assures the safeguard of the public interest and on the other
gives the opportunity to select among different offers the best one.
With reference to the evaluation of the Project, the way through which
technical specifications are defined in the contract documentations is crucial
to this purpose. As a general rule, technical specifications have to be drafted
so as to afford equal access to the bidders, without any discrimination,
either directly or indirectly, among them.

Under EC procurement law, there are basically two sets of requirements
which must be fulfilled by the bidders in order to participate to the tender
having as object the Project. The first one deals with the possession of
certain qualities pertaining to the subject itself (so-called moral requisites).
Generally speaking, through such requisites the tender has to aim at
excluding from the participation those subjects which are in certain peculiar
situations, such as:

subjects who have been convicted for certain type of crimes (such
as participation in a criminal organization, corruption, bribery,
46
fraud, etc.); subjects facing bankruptcy (or entering in a proceeding
for the declaration of bankruptcy)
subjects who failed to pay social security contributions or taxes;
Subjects who have been found guilty of serious professional
misconduct, etc

The second set of requisites deals with the possession of specific financial
or technical requirements, established by the public body in order to pre-
select the participants to be invited to submit an offer. It should be
underlined that such requisites must be proportional and cannot introduce
discriminatory restrictions to the possibility to participate to the tender.
In line with the EU Directives, the tender will be awarded on the basis of
criterion known as the most economically advantageous one.
The above criterion specifically takes into account both the economical and
the technical aspects, allowing the public body to pursue the best trade-off.
In practice, the public body will give a specific weight (in terms of
percentage) to each of the above mentioned aspects (for example, 40% to
the price and 60% to the technical aspects) and specify the weight attributed
to the technical aspects through sub criteria, in particular, by attributing to
each of them an individual percentage within the overall percentage
attributed to the technical aspects (in the above case by attributing, for
example, 20% quality, 15% technical assistance and follow-up etc.).
Having chosen the open procedure, the public body has to publish at a
national level the notice of the tender on the relevant national Journal so
that all private investors have the opportunity to bid.

The decommissioning of the PV plant as foreseen in the public
tender
Decommissioning of a PV plant may include removal of solar system
components, buildings, foundations, tanks, and other components.
Virtually the entire land area of the solar development will be impacted by
decommissioning and deconstruction activities. Transmission lines would
probably remain in place as part of the transmission grid. Otherwise, the
components would be removed for disposal or recycling.
This could also involve the management of solid and industrial wastes to be
threatened pursuant to the national applicable Law.
It has been already illustrated a proposal for public tender having as object
the construction and operation of 1 MW PVPP to be located on a marginal
area owned by the public body.
At the end of the operation of the solar plant, probably lasting around 20
years according to the applicable timing of Feed in Tariff Regime, the
decommissioning of the plant will be a relevant issue.
Though the EC hasnt yet approved a specific legislation on PV modules
disposal, based on the analysis of the national applicable legislations (with
reference to those Countries involved in the Project), it has been possible to
summarize the following suggestions:

Firstly, the public tender has to contain the plan for decommissioning of
the solar plant, and the concessionaire has to provide at a minimum the
information regarding:

47
Procedures for dismantling or demolishing panels and facilities
Activities related to the restoration of the land
Procedures for managing materials and waste in excess

Furthermore, the Public Body has to require to the concessionaire financial
assurance on the implementation of the decommissioning activities. To this
regard, it could be important to specify in the tender documents, the
circumstance that the financial assurance is required with reference to:

Decommissioning during construction (abandonment of project)
Decommissioning after ceasing operation
Potential restoration of lands negatively affected by the facility

With reference to the above, the financial assurance amount could be
calculated, for example, based on the amount of waste that will be managed
in such activities.
It could also be possible to provide in the tender document a clause based
on which after ceasing operation, the Public Body, being owner of the land,
may decide to renew the concession. The issue is strictly connected to the
evaluation of public interest at the time of the renewal which mostly
depends on the future feed in tariff regime.
48
Main differences in case of a private owner

This chapter focuses on the main differences that can be observed when the
area is under a private ownership. In other words, it covers an analysis of
the specific case in which the investment is made by a private organization
on its own marginal land.

General interest

The general interest includes those decisions which are commonly thought
to be motivated by noble social concerns.

There are cases in which the general interest can be pursued by an
economic activity. For instance, a municipality may decide to make an
investment in PVPP to protect the environment by installing clean energy
technologies which can also help to:

Reduce carbon emission;
Save taxpayer money by generating revenue from the sales of
electricity.

To manage the above mentioned objectives a business plan is required to
estimate the investment convenience by calculating its return on investment
(ROI), the payback period, the net present value, and other economic
aspects.
Such calculation is typically performed when the investment is made by a
private organization. Think for a moment of the case in which the land is
under private ownership and the investment is made by the private owner.
The business plan is prepared by the owner intending to construct a PVPP
and may be the financial intermediaries which decide to finance it.
However, in carrying out this analysis these two categories of stakeholders
try to shelter their private interests namely making a profitable investment.
After all, companies invest in a variety of assets and the object of the
investment, or capital budgeting, decision is to find real assets that are
worth more than they cost.
Nevertheless, also when the investment is promoted by private
organizations, the general interest is safeguarded through the national and
local legislations. In fact, by definition, the interest of the general public is
promoted by governments and more in general by the public sector. For
instance, the public sector is engaged in defining a set of rules to make sure
that the increasing amount of energy produced by renewable energy
projects (such as PV projects) is not in contrast with the general interest.

49
Financial instruments

Municipalities usually encounter several problems in making an investment
in a new photovoltaic power system and one of them is the municipal
budget. In countries where sub-national governments control a large part of
the public finances, the central government's ability to keep its commitment
to the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact can be a difficult
matter. European rules demand that the overall budget is balanced over the
medium term and applying this rule at sub central level the mechanism may
result in a reduction of the local budgetary autonomy by budgetary stability
legislation on the capital outlays of municipalities.
This is the first important difference that can be pointed out between the
investments made by the public sector and those performed by private
organizations as in the latter case the constraints set by the Stability Pact are
not applied. In fact, from a practical stand point, whereas municipalities
must take into account the constraints mentioned above in the choice of
forms of financing, private companies can carry out a freer assessment.
As mentioned previously in this document, the construction of a new
photovoltaic system entails an immediate outlay of money which is
compensated in the course of several years. Therefore, the first evaluation
that each company must make is whether to finance the investment with
equity or by borrowing funds. In this evaluation, the company will consider
at least two factors: the interest rates charged on loans and the opportunity
cost of capital, namely, the flow of revenues resulting from an alternative
investment of the same class of risk.

If the investor is the land owner the main financing instruments that can be
considered are the following:

Mortgage
Leasing (financial lease)

As previously mentioned, a mortgage is a loan secured by a property and
paid in instalments over a set period of the time. Companies that install
photovoltaic systems often have agreements with one or more banking
institutions through which you can obtain loans (mortgages) with
favourable characteristics.
Loosely speaking, the leasing contract come in many forms, but in all cases
the lessee (investor) promises to make a series of payment to the lessor
(owner). The lease contract specifies the monthly or semi-annual payments,
with the first payment usually due as soon as the contract is signed.
Financial leases are a source of financing. Signing a financial lease contract
is like borrowing money as there is an immediate cash inflow because the
lessee is relieved of having to pay for the asset. But the lessee also assumes a
binding obligation to make the payments specified in the contract. In most
of the cases the lessee identified the equipment, arranges for the leasing
company to buy it from the manufacturer, and signs a contract with the
leasing company.
As mentioned previously in this document, the leasing is less-capital than
purchasing and thus it can make the firms balance sheet and income
statement look better. In fact, in some countries financial leases are off-
50
balance-sheet financing. For instance, this is not possible in the United
States where the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requires
that financial lease be capitalized.
Another hypothesis that can occur is the one where the landowner does not
intend to construct directly the photovoltaic power system. In this case the
landowner may decide to grant the use of its area to a private company
which will then make an investment following one of the methods
described above. For the granting of land the owner will receive a fee and
the agreement will be made for a long period (10-20 years).
Of course, in the evaluations concerning the investment and return on it the
investors will take into account the feed-in tariff system and tax incentives
that have been set in each country.

Authorization processes

A previous chapter in this handbook contains a description of the
authorization processes that have been defined in the project countries
members for investment in PVPP projects. In particular, it provides
information as to how the municipalities can run a public tenders in order
to use their lands to make investments in PVPPs.
Among other things, it was pointed out that a public body (mainly
municipalities) intending to develop a PVPP project, prior to any other
decision, has to evaluate the existence of the public interest, even locally
intended, into the implementation of the project.

Further, the basic underlying principles of the European public
procurement regime must apply such as:

Transparency
Non-discrimination
Equal treatment
Proportionality

Assuming that the owner of the marginal is a private citizen or a private
company there are the two cases may occur:

The owner intends to invest directly to construct a photovoltaic
system
The owner does not intend to make the investment directly but
prefers to grant the area for a given period to a third party which
will then use it to make the investment

In the former case, the landowner must take actions only for obtaining the
permits that the national and/or local legislations require to construct the
PV system. In fact, no tendering procedure will be applicable due to the
private ownership of the land.
The types of licenses and permits which the investor will have to obtain will
vary depending on the type of facility that will be attained and the size. For
instance, with reference to the ground-mounted PV systems, in Greece
there are 3 different procedures depending on the size of the power system.
51
These three procedures are report below:

An additional procedure does exist in Greece for ground-mounted PV
systems with an installed capacity of more than 1,000 kWp. For information
it is reported below:

The latter case occurs when the owner does not intend to invest directly in
the construction of the PVPP system. Assuming that the owner does not
want to sell his property, there will be an interest in finding an operator that
will develop a project on its marginal area. Clearly, unlike the public body,
the landowner in this case will not have to give a public notice nor it will be
necessary to run a public tender. Further, it will not be necessary to verify
the existence of a public interest and none of the basic underlying principles
of the European public procurement regime will have to be applied.
However, it may be possible that the selection will be performed on the
basis of a structure process set up by the land owner for which potential
partner will have to response to a RFQ (Request for Quotation).
Conversely, the operator will be probably selected on the basis of its
references and in relation to the remuneration that the operator will be
willing to pay to use the marginal area.
Table 10
Table 31
Table 42
52
Examples of Business Models referring to different PVPP
realizations

Campardo landfill Conegliano, Veneto Region, Italy
Thematic park - Municipality of Gavardo, Valle Sabbia,
Brescia, Lombardia Region, Italy
Cavriglia quarry, Arezzo, Tuscania Region, Italy
Tessmann Landfill, San Antonio, State of Texas, U.S.A.
Thiva landfill, Viotia prefecture, Greece
Ronneburg mining area, Austria
Eberstalzell buffer zone, Austria
Power Park, Murek, Graz Region, Austria

53
Campardo landfill Conegliano, Veneto Region, Italy

Description of the project
The building of a photovoltaic plant on the landfill Campardo (the project
was made and presented at the end of 2010 by Alessandro eng. Chies) is
based on a model of sustainability that closely unites the cluster of small
villages in the Veneto Conegliano Province with their own consortium for
the provision of environmental services, called CIT.

Quick facts

Marginal terrain re-use model
The project Campardo foresees that each municipality of the Consortium
CIT will become the owner of a particle of the planned ground
photovoltaic plant, according to the logic that the amount of energy
produced locally by the plant will be used in places far from the production
site, by the municipality itself for the strategic needs for its users.
This is allowed by Italian legislation, when the involved municipalities are
small ones, with a population of less than 20.000 inhabitants. The benefits
for the small municipalities are high because they may use free green energy
produced by a plant, whose costs will be entirely up to their consortium.
The consortium in turn, thanks to the benefits due to the incentive tariff,
will have a positive economic return on investment over the medium term
(20 years), to be made available for further activities in order to continue the
rehabilitation of the area and provide other services yet on behalf of the
municipalities.
In fact the first Photovoltaic plant has been foreseen of 1 MWp electrical
power, for speeding the start of the realization and for creating a pilot
experience that could guide the completion of photovoltaic landfill
investment for at least additionally 2 MWp (see following chapter 4).
Location: Conegliano Veneto Region, Italy
Marginal terrain: landfill in post mortem
Terrain owner: CIT (consortium made by 44 different municipalities)
Surface: 39.549 sqm ( first lot )
Total pv electrical
capacity foreseen : 999 kWp
Tecnology: Polycrystalline silicon
Position on ground: Fixed ground supported
PV Modules surface: 8,192 sqm
Annual electricity
production: 1,150,000 kWh/year
Additional pv systems
to be installed in the
second lot: 2.6MWp
Project submission: year 2010
54
Some of the small towns on the other hand can use the savings due to the
resulting energy not paid, to upgrade the public lighting system, so to obtain
additional revenues over time through lower power consumption.

PVPV design and construction
The Campardo landfill is the sum of two different areas owned by two
different actors. The first area (owned by CIT) is almost a square surface of
39.549 sqm. The second area (owned by the Municipality of Cordignano
(TV)) is an irregular polygon of 54.363 sqm.
The status of the landfill is post mortem since several years. The surface
capping is already in place and no relevant problems exist in order to
maintain the entire landfill. The only activity necessary in order to properly
maintain the landfill is the management and the monitoring of the eventual
ground surface movements.
These activities are totally in charge to the CIT (consortium made by 44
different municipalities and led by Gianpaolo Vallardi Major of Chiarano
Municipality) for both the areas.
The peak power of the two different plants could be estimated in 1MWp
for the CIT area and up to 2.6MWp for the Cordignano Municipality area.
These calculations have been made analysing the profile and the orientation
of the grounds. In addition to this, even the guarantees for the adequate
maintenance routes and technological services have been taken into
account.

Feed in tariff and additional benefits
The project is exemplary not only for its communitarian character but also
for its design that allows the exploitation of the premiums foreseen by the
dispositions that accompany the new Italian incentive tariff (2011-2013) for
ground photovoltaic plants like: premium on incentive tariff rate up to
another 20%, recognized for the production of energy in accordance to the
energy forecasts of the day before.

The new rules on tariffs 2011-2013 stand for granting only two types of
photovoltaic systems:

1. Made on the buildings,
2. Other facilities.

The electricity produced by plants on land belongs to the category 2). The
plants in category 2) with rated power between 200 and 1,000 kWp, which
will commence operations by April 2011 are entitled to the incentive rate of
0.314 / kWh, those who come into operation by August 2011 the tariff of
0.303 / kWh, as that will commence operations by December 2011 the
tariff of 0.266 / kWh.
The electricity produced by photovoltaic systems in category 2), which will
commence its operative life in 2012 and 2013, is entitled to the rate of 0.266
/ kWh, reduced by 6% per year, with commercial rounding to three
decimal places.
55
The incentive rate is valid for a period of twenty years from the date of
entry into the facility and is in constant currency current throughout the
incentive period.
The systems have subsequently entered into service after upgrading can
access tariffs limited to the additional production.
For the Public Administration Entities, the model adopted in this project,
assumes the creation of a cluster of different plants with nominal power of
20kWp (to a total of 1MW). This is due to the fact that, in accordance to
the amendment Vallardi to the DLGS 99/2009 which assumes that for
the Public Administration, there is no need of coincidence of the feed-in
and consumption point to fall in the local exchange regime.
In addition to this, there is another important exception for the Public
Administration: in every case, the incentive tariff for these entities is the
maximum allowable for that plant size (it means that in every cases, the
incentive tariff is the one that considers the plant over roofs even if they are
on other sites).
Stating this, the effective incentive tariff is the one for plant of power 3 < P
<= 20kWp and is, in this case, 0.377 / kWh for start-up period up to
April, 30 2011. Considering all the activities related to the current project, it
will be feasible to connect the plant to the grid (starting now with the
operations) by September 2011, so it will be necessary to consider a tariff of
0.342 / kWh.

The price quoted above may be increased adding:

a. 5% if the same facilities are located in areas classified, at the date of
entry into force of the decree, by the relevant planning instrument
such as: industrial, commercial, quarries and landfills exhausted, area
of relevance of exhausted landfills or contaminated sites as defined
by Article 240, Legislative Decree 3 April 2006, No 152 and
subsequent amendments or additions
b. 5% if operating under the net metering place, made by
municipalities with a population less than 5,000 inhabitants
according to the last census carried out by Istat prior to entry into
operation of such plants, of which these municipalities are
responsible parties

For systems with predictable profile of exchange, tariffs can be increased by
20% relative to the energy produced each day, when conditions are met, or
the day's production in line with forecasts sent the day before.
A "system with a profile of expected exchange" means the system meets all
of the following characteristics:

I. It consists of one or more photovoltaic systems managed by the
person responsible for a unit with an aggregate of points of entry,
sampling points and any storage systems energy, and treated on an
hourly basis to a single underlying primary substation
II. It is made with one or more photovoltaic systems that have a total
rated power exceeding 200 kW but less than 10 MW
III. It has an overall profile of an exchange with the electricity grid
according to an estimated schedule referred to the period 8:00 and
56
20:00 of the day before, released by the owner of the PV plant, with
an allowed margin of error of 10% each day

Sustainability principles and socio-environmental aspects
The redevelopment of the landfill Campardo in Conegliano Veneto Italy is a
virtuous action that is intended to generate positive economic returns not
only for the 20-year period considered by the analysis of investment, but at
least for additional other 15 years, thanks to the good governance of the
investment and the future maintenance made by the consortium CIT, set up
by the same municipality for waste management.
The guarantee for the sustainability in the long run is assured by the
Municipalities themselves through their consortium CIT, who has the
knowledge and capacity to well manage the graded investment as far as
both to install 3,6 MWp of ground photovoltaics, and to maintain an
acceptable operative activity of electricity generation.
From the financial point of view the Consortium CIT will open a loan with
the banks that already serve the Municipalities treasuries (shareholders of
CIT) at an affordable rate.
Furthermore the CIT will aim to develop the second lot of ground
photovoltaics (2, 6 MWp) maximizing the benefit for the municipalities
shareholders by lowering the costs for the waste cycle management.
The valorisation of the area will be finally enhanced by supporting
surrounding grounds owners to make investments in RES for agroenergy
e.g. By building greenhouses equipped with solar systems and biomass co-
generators.

Business plan main topics and investment indicators
The business model is based on the following assumptions:

create an exemplary achievement shared by the participating
municipalities, and more importantly appreciated by citizens,
because they see the environment improved and the coffers of their
municipality supported;
give rise to an investment that goes in the direction of development
of renewable energy production with adequate leverage to ensure a
positive economic return, and scalable improvement of investment
over time;
speed up the approval of the investment, thanks to the type of
intervention supported and encouraged by the project PVs in
BLOOM and the search for the technological and management
conditions of the plant such as to take advantages from the
maximum incentive rate.

The business model in detail involves the following steps:

Designing a system with nominal power of 1 MWp, divided into
small lots of less than 20 kWp, which are clearly identifiable in the
portion of land occupied by corresponding panels;
Cession of the surface (corresponding to 20KWp) to individual
Municipalities participating in the Campardo project;
57
The CIT provides the building of 1MWp PV-System with the
collection of the payment of the energy account of 0.335 / kWh
(the rate includes a bonus of 5% for construction on landfill and a
5% bonus for municipalities with up to 5.000 inhabitants);
The CIT will receive delegation from municipalities on the basis of
special municipal resolutions, for installing the entire set of plants
acting for each municipality as a leasing actor;
Thanks to the Net metering (Amendment Vallardi) each
Municipality will benefit of an average savings of 0.18 / kWh;
Each municipality participating to the project will receive the
incentive tariff and the energy exchange quote. The incentive tariff
part of the incomings from GSE will be automatically re-routed to
CIT to pay the investment;

On the base of this assumption and turning key of the Campardo PV
System for the second half of 2011 (September 2011) the following
economic prospect is calculated:
The foreseen cash flows considering a start up after August 2011 and only
the 5% of bonus due to landfill installation is as follows:

Table 53
58

Considering the Vallardi amendment, and assuming a stabilised
consumption exactly coincident to the annual productivity of the plant at
the first year, we can consider a MEE and an exchange contribution as
follows:

Table 14
Figure 4: break event point

Table 15: financial indicators.
59
As the project is conceived for benefiting of the maximum incentive tariff
(increase of the average incentive rate by a further 20% due to the increases
foreseen for the realization of expected consumption) the economic
calculations so positively change:

Considering the Vallardi amendment, and assuming a stabilised
consumption exactly coincident to the annual productivity of the plant at
the first year, we can consider a MEE and an exchange contribution as
follows:

Table 16
Table 67
60

Lessons learnt
Here are some considerations related to the project of the landfill
Campardo:

Ground photovoltaic investment in a landfill involving several
municipalities is always a long lasting process due to burocracy and
citizen involvement;
A strong commitment to a selected project team is needed;
Involvement of bodies competent in landfill ( Province and
Region ) is essential;
Take advantage from experience of others subjects that has just
made similar investments;
Promote solutions to landfill investments that could become a
standard recognized by local authority and a guide for other public
owners that want to repeat such investments.
Table 18: financial indicators
Figure 5: breakeven point
61
Thematic park - Municipality of Gavardo, Valle Sabbia, Brescia,
Italy

This initiative derives from the need to protect the environment and the
territory of the communities that risk isolation and, therefore, the slow
decline of mountain areas. The reconstruction of a degraded area using the
photovoltaic investment for obtaining leverage effect is a fundamental path
towards a wider program of territory requalification. In any case, the
energetic sustainability for the local communities is a strategic aspect that
supports the whole requalification work in the medium period (objective
zero common consumption cost).

The area where the photovoltaic park has been located is placed at the
western border of the Municipality of Gavardo, Gusciana locality, near
Pospesio in the Municipality of Paitone.
The area is completely isolated compared to the nearest residential areas,
not visible from the public roads and reachable only by the linking route
between the two municipalities, denominated Via del Marmo (Marble
Road) and identified by the Province of Brescia as over-municipal
pedestrian and cycling itinerary.
The main characteristic of the area, in addition to the presence of disused
buildings with strongly polluting materials (asbestos), is the isolation of the
same area from the reference context.
This is indeed a depressed area compared to the near hills (monte Tesio to
the North and monte Budellone to the South) and placed to a lower
elevation compared to the western valley bottoms side down.
The following data were taken from
the documentation available on the websites of the municipalities and the
mountain community of Val Sabbia and on public interviews with plant
designer, planners and policy makers of the place.
Figure 6: rendering of thematic park
62
Quick facts

Marginal terrain reuse model
The area where the photovoltaic park has been built was characterized by
the presence of 13 agriculture related production buildings, for a total
covered surface of about 16,000 sm, previously used as turkeys farm. The
presence of asbestos materials (asbetsos) on the un-protected and exposed
to climate events coverings represented certainly a real danger for water and
air pollution.

Location: Municipality of Gavardo, Valle Sabbia, Brescia, Italy
Marginal terrain: area of abandoned poultry farms with
asbestos cement roofs
Terrain owner: Consortium of municipalities that obtained the ownership
of land by private individuals in exchange for concessions to
build in other places
Surface : 80,000 sqm
Surface covered by
pv panels: 46,000 sqm
Total pv electrical
capacity foreseen: 5,525.52 kWp
Sections: 11
Middle voltage: 15,000 VAC
PV modules N.: 2,4024
PV Strings: 1,092
Inverter N.: 11
PV modules surface : 39,322 sm
Annaul electrical
energy: 5,801,796 kWh/anno
Electrical energy
produced in 20 years: 116,035,920 kWh
Reduction of CO2: 2,030,629 kg
Figure 7: Aerial view of old
abandoned poultry farms
63
In total more than 350.000 kg of Asbestos-contamineted materials have
been disposed of without any cost for the community.

In addition, two historical buildings, with recognizable architectural
elements of important value, one placed within the area and a smaller one,
near the area itself, will be preserved and enhanced within the renewable
sources educational park project, that is still in its elaboration phase.
The photovoltaic park project is a forerunner of a larger and more qualified
action of development and enhancement of the area, that foresees the
realization of the Valle Sabbia Mountain Community Renewable Energy
Park, currently in its realization phase. The Park will offer a path in an
educational park that will allow to explore all the different forms of
renewable energy sources and to visit one of the largest public photovoltaic
parks in Europe, showing its working characteristics and its productive
capacities.
The open air installation, the educational paths and the laboratories will
both allow to guests needs, but also to deepen the functioning and to
directly verify the efficiency of implants and machines powered by
renewable energy.

Figure 8: View of an abandoned
poultry farm
Figure 9: bicycle path routes
64
A bicycle path allows the direct arrival to the educational park but also to
continue in the provincial bicycle path that links Brescia to Valle Sabbia, or
for a brief historical tour towards the Via del Marmo or the Archaeological
Museum of Gavardo: a very good way to raise awareness of sustainable
mobility, involving the community and highlighting the local architectural
historical heritage.

PVPP design and construction
The photovoltaic panels have been installed on a special metal carpentry
structure, in order to protect the natural elements, at the same time, creating
a fifth uniform characterized by an architectural form that could represent
and identify the place and the new function. The existing swallow-holes
have been duly secured and inserted in the educational paths of the
renewable energy park.

The structure is of a grid-connected type and the typology of standing is
three-phase middle voltage. The site consists of two macro-zones, to which
correspond to six sections, the first macro-zone is placed in the southern
part of the lotto [area], mainly flat, the second one is characterized by
medium-high slopes, oriented towards the South, with important azimuth
variations that make the surface of the soil in many different ways
[variously] exposed. The photovoltaic modules are fixed to the soil by
special structures able to allow the assembly and the disassembly for each
module, independently from the presence of the adjoining ones.

Figure 10: Aerial view of Ground
photovoltaic plant
Figure 11: Inauguration of the
photovoltaic plant

65
FIT and additional benefits
The system of tariffs is that resulting from direct sales to the public grid
(0.422+0,09 /kWh). In the Sabbia Valley buildings used for public
services, such as nursing homes, municipal offices, schools, offices
mountain community, site services company for gas and waste disposal
(SOCOVAR), etc may now be almost self-sufficient in terms of energy.

Fulcrum and support of the whole project opera is the photovoltaic park
that works as a cultural catalyst and an economic lever. This park has been
realized after the demolition of the existing and obsolete warehouses (ex-
poultry farm), with the contextual reduction of the area cubature and
possibility to address it to other human settlement development objectives.
The recovery of the asbetsos coverages has benefited of the support of the
Region and the possibility to enjoy the consequent facilitation on the
photovoltaic energy bill [account] foreseen in cases of photovoltaic
installation while removing Asbestos. The realization of the open air
showing section, of the educational paths, of the temporary reception
structures (gazebo, stationary locations and tower to view the photovoltaic
installations in their completeness), play and recreational areas (space for
souvenir photo), has constituted the structural base for visitors welcoming,
increasing the notoriety for the valley and leading to the consequent
development of local economy.
The recovery of the existing historical buildings, the creation of the
reception centres, the requalification of the external links (serviceability of
the roads, parking, cycle paths), will be another important phase to promote
the financial sustainability of the foreseen requalification program.
Using the photovoltaic technology and its careful integration with the soil
structure has allowed to reach:

the compatibility with the architectonical requirements and of
environmental protection;
almost nil noise pollution, nil soil or air pollution;
a saving in fossil fuel;
an electric energy production without emission of polluting
substances.

66
Business plan main topics
In the following table major information about the investment is given

Potential other investments
Investment in PV has dragged other investments to renovate the historic
buildings of the place and turn on the tourist trails. Other investments
demonstration for the production of renewable energy are planned: a wind
turbine and a biomass generator.

Lessons learnt
The experiment showed that the Val Sabbia joint and convinced action of
small municipalities can overcome many hurdles and quickly make the RES
investments essential to the life of the valley, especially with regard to the
generation of income and opportunities for working able to decrease the
emigration of young people.
Another lesson arising from the experience of the Val Sabbia is the ability
to build large photovoltaic systems even within a wide green valley, where
much attention is placed on integrating pv plant with the context, even
giving some economic disadvantage. To achieve the least impact on the
landscape and bring up the system from afar like a lake of light the angle
of the panels was limited to 10 degrees, instead of the 30 degrees optimum
tilt, giving up a few percent of electrical yield.
Table 19
67
Cavriglia quarry, Arezzo, Tuscany Region, Italy

The PVPP of the City of Cavriglia was born from a competition of ideas for
the renovation and landscaping of the former mining area of Santa Barbara
after a joint proposal to allocate a good part of the mining area of Santa
Barbara to the realization of an "energy park".
This led to the identification of an area covering approximately 60 hectares,
located near the provincial road of Vacchereccia as it could guarantee an
easy access. This area was previously used by Enel as a site of permanent
storage of the inert materials which came from the mining area, therefore
today, despite the original topography, the area is a floor of multi-level seats,
divided by small sized slopes.
A significant portion of the area has been used since the mid-'70s until the
late '80s, as a landfill for the municipal solid waste. This area, commonly
known as "Tegolaia", is now the site to be reclaimed. Next to the area of
interest there is a large flat area of about 20 hectares divided in two different
levels, that the municipality of Craviglia considered suitable to
accommodate a 10 MWp PVPP. The selection is the maximum size, less
than 10,000 kWp, as is expected the Autorizazione Unica at the Province
of Arezzo (plant <10 MW), not the responsibility of the Region of Tuscany;
The information below is taken from the documentation available at the site
of the town of Cavriglia and press statements.

Figure 12: location for PVPP
68

Quick Facts

Location: Santa Barbara - loc. Tegolaia- Cap. 52022 Cavriglia,
Arezzo, Tuscania Region, Italy
Marginal Area: Ex quarry
Property size: 60.000 sqm of which 20.000 for photovoltaics.
Site ownership: Municipality of Cavriglia (AR).
Ground photovoltaic
type (PVPP): 10 MWp of Fixed ground polycrystalline silicon
Project cost: 35.800.000 euro.
Key partners:: Municipality of Cavriglia owner, who grants the
right to surface behind a temporary enterprise network
of local companies
Current status: Municipal resolution N. 213 of 07.10.2010 established
the municipal financial advisor of the project financing
made by a temporary enterprise networkof:
Consorzio Operative Costruzioni CCC,
Cooperative Society with headquarter in Bologna
(Mandataria)
E.S.TR.A S.R.L. with headquarter in Prato
(Mandante)
Consorzio Tebe with headquarter in Firenze
(Mandante)
Consorzio Toscano Cooperative C.T.C.,
Cooperative Society with headquarter in Firenze
(Mandante).
On 28th of July 2011 Coop Cellini of Prato was named as executor and
leader of the construction of the plant.

Figure 13: aerial view
69
Marginal area reuse model
The main aim of this project is to have the opportunity to produce
electricity by a "clean" energy source for the production of electricity thanks
to a strong promotion of the use of renewables and promoting energy
efficiency to help to achieve the objectives set by the European
Commission for the compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.
The Public Administration, for its part, is giving in concession the area
where the project will be realized. At the expiry of this concession, the area
will be without charge in full and complete availability of the municipality,
including any construction, installation and equipment standing on it. In any
case there will be the possibility for the municipality to require the
decommissioning of the PVPP for free.

Therefore there are a couple of advantages both for the municipal and local
community of the inhabitants as following:

The City of Cavriglia will be entitled to an annual license fee (based
on the bids to be submitted) proportional to the Feed-in tariff.
A portion of the plant, at least 500 kWp, should be reserved for
"popular shareholding". This is because it is the will of the City of
Cavriglia, that all citizens who do not have any sites suitable for
exploiting renewable sources could contribute actively to the
reduction in the production of greenhouse gases and to the
environmental sustainability of the country.

Given the above mentioned facts, it is possible to point out the Project is
advantageous to the City from three different points of view:
environmental, economic and social sharing.
ENVIRONMENTAL. From the environmental point of view the system
has the obvious advantage of using a renewable energy source, with an
almost zero-balance emitted CO2. The realization of Cavriglia system will
prevent the annual emission of approximately 6,000 tones per annum of
CO2. Considering national and regional energy policies as a consequence to
the aim of respecting the parameters of the Kyoto Protocol, it is important
that a public body such as the City of Cavriglia produces its energy from
renewable sources with negligible effects of environmental impact. It is also
very important that the first part of the broader recovery plan and
landscaping of the former mining area of Santa Barbara has no any cost for
the municipality.
ECONOMIC. Regarding the economical sustainability for the Municipality
of Cavriglia, the benefits are estimated (on average, over the age of 20) in
about 730,000 / year (0.07 / kWh ), which have to be added the
creation of a cycling circuit that the contractor / dealer has built for
compensations purpose.

SOCIAL SHARING. The Project includes the possibility for citizens to buy
a portion of the PVPP troughs the purchasing of solar shares.
There will be available up to 500 units of the value of 1 kWp installed with a
price of 3.500,00 each. The bond will be issued in two tranches with
different maturities and yields:
A tranche of 300 units will last 5 years with a gross annual interest
rate of 4.5%
70
A second tranche of 200 units will last 10 years with a gross annual
interest rate of 5.5%

Both the first and the second tranche will be repaid at maturity, while
interest will be paid annually. Only citizens with correctly registered
residence in the town of Cavriglia at the issue date of the notice could
purchase these titles (each person could subscribe up to 5 kWp amounted
to 17,500.00).

PVPP Design and construction
The proposed photovoltaic generator has the following characteristics:

Total peak Power: 9,826.74 kWp
Module unit peak power: 210 Wp
Number of photovoltaic modules: 337 type "6Hx22" + 35 type
"6Hx11"
Surface area: approximately 200,000 square meters
Inverters: 10 inverters (1,000 kW each)

Feed in tariff and additional benefits
The plant will benefit the Feed-in tariff called "Conto Energia" under the
provisions of the Decree 19/02/2007 issued by the Ministry of Economic
Development, in consultation with the Minister of the Environment,
(subsequent modifications and integrations) that consolidates the criteria to
how to stimulate the production of electricity from solar photovoltaic,
pursuant to Article 7 of legislative Decree 29 December 2003, No 387.
The Conto Energia provides for the payment of an incentive tariff for
each kWh produced by the plants, which will come into operation from 1
January 2010 to December 31, 2010, as follows:

Unfortunately, the delay in the public tender process and starting building
of the Project required a review of the economic figures with the tender
winner.
The City will have the title of responsible body according to the Decree of
the photovoltaic system "Conto Energia". The Agency will transfer to the
Dealer / Contractor, or any other person indicated by this, the tariffs set by
the Ministerial Decree 19/2/07 that the GSE will be required to pay the
responsible body of the PVPP in order to allow the dealer to finance the
costs of the photovoltaic system and have the appropriate economic return.
In this way, on systems where the responsible body is a local authority
(municipality), the rate in the Conto Energia has always been recognized
as for fully integrated values (Article 173 paragraph 2. Finanziaria 2008).

The energy produced by PV can be sold in two different ways as following:
Table 20
71

"Indirect" by entering into an agreement with the GSE dedicated
withdrawal, pursuant to Authority Resolution No 280/07 and
subsequent amendments
"Live" through the sale on the stock market or a wholesaler
(bilateral contract)

In both cases all economic benefit generated by the selling of energy will be
totally transferred to the dealer for the same duration of the concession
Anyway, the City of Cavriglia is entitled to receive every year a license fee
calculated at a CE parameter (possibly plus a CC parameter) which is an
element of economic competition in the public tender. Further it must be
guaranteed an annual minimum income calculated in according to the table
of annual energy production (annex to the offer as required by the
Competition Rules). The minimum of the parameter will be the CE of 0.07
/ kWh.
It was not considered cost-effective to retain part of the plant under the net
metering (Scambio sul Posto), using the opportunity given to
municipalities to access the this scheme in absence of coincidence between
the points of production and withdrawal, 200 kW is only a small fraction of
10 MW and also the benefit of self-consumption would not be achieved
directly.
The construction and operation will be compliant with all prescriptions
required by the resolutions of the Authority for Electricity and Gas.

The sustainability of the initiative is based on the selection of the
concessionaire and in particular on his experience and ability to build
photovoltaic systems in a workmanlike manner and it guarantees that the
dealer provides for the proper functioning of the system over time (at least
for the duration of 20 years). Sustainability is in fact dependent both from
the standpoint of efficiency and continuous delivery of electricity, and the
durability of the sensing elements of the plant.
It's clear that these risks can be covered by guaranty forms and/or
insurance. In any case, it would be desirable not to have recourse to
compensation through the forms of protection signed, because it is difficult
to reach agreement in reasonable shape. The use of forms of security may
be directly enforceable, one could say, but they are very expensive and the
margin due to the investment will be reduced. Also the indirect
involvement of citizens into the investment is important for a faster
approval of the project, but also because the distance between political
decisions and citizens becomes narrower and evident the awareness that
renewable energy investments have favourable impacts.

The Business Plan refers to the assessments made taking into account the
2010 tariffs. Since the contract was awarded in November 2010 and the
start of work has been planned for February 2011, are being redefined
according to the economic conditions for 2011.
72
Anyway, considering the aim of this guide, we will use the original figures
referred to the 2010.
The City will have the title of responsible body under the Decree of the
photovoltaic system "Conto Energia". The Agency will transfer to the
Dealer / Contractor, or any other person indicated by this, the tariffs set by
the Ministerial Decree 19/2/07 that the GSE will be required to pay the
responsible body of the PVPP in order to allow the dealer to finance the
costs of the photovoltaic system and have the appropriate economic return.
In this way the Feed in Tariff applicable is always the tariff reserved for the
fully integrated installation even if it would not be it. (Paragraph 173 article
2. Finanziaria 2008).
All costs of construction, operation, maintenance and repairs related to the
PVPP will be paid by the dealer, without any involvement of the
municipality.
The Public Administration, for its part, is giving in concession the area
where the Project will be realized. At the expiry of this concession, the area
will be without charge in full and complete availability of the municipality,
including any construction, installation and equipment standing on it. In any
case there will be the possibility for the municipality to require the
decommissioning of the PVPP for free.

The benefits arising from the sale on the energy market or the signing of
bilateral agreements or accession to the dedicated set-aside scheme, for a
number of years equal to the duration of the concession will be transferred
entirely to the dealer. Benefitting the municipal and local community, there
will be the following points:

The City of Cavriglia will be entitled to an annual license fee (based
on the bids to be submitted) proportional to the Feed-in tariff
A portion of the plant, at least 500 kWp, should be reserved for
"popular shareholding", as specified in the present study. This is
because it is the will of the City of Cavriglia that all citizens, who do
not have any sites suitable for exploiting renewable sources could
contribute actively to the reduction of the production of greenhouse
gases and to the environmental sustainability of the country

The rates shown in the table below (2010 rates will be applied as previously
explained) are awarded for a period of twenty years from the date of the
connection of the PVPP to the grid and will remain constant, without any
update relevant to the inflation for the entire period. The Conto Energia
provides for the payment of an incentive tariff for each kWh produced by
the plants, which will come into operation from 1 January 2010 to
December 31, 2010, as follows:

Table 21
73
In addition to the incentive mentioned above, the responsible body an have
an additional economic advantage, since the energy produced will be used
for:
Selling of electricity with pre-agreed prices (so-called "dedicated
withdrawal", which is carried out by the GSE) or those of the
market (sales through the power exchange or through bilateral
contract with a buyer)
Their own consumption, relevant to the consumption of electricity
produced.

Therefore there are two economic benefits that the person responsible for
the plant will enjoy: the incentive rate resulting from the energy bill and the
value of electricity produced by the plant. The tariffs are applicable to the
energy produced by photovoltaic systems for the realization of which have
been granted public funding of regional, local or Community capital and/or
interest capitalization, only if these do not exceed 20% of the investment
cost.
This means that for the City of Cavriglia the consumption of energy
produced is an implicit income because is a cost savings (reduction of the
electricity expenditure) as you cannot buy electricity from the grid in
proportion to energy consumption. For plants with a capacity exceeding 20
kW, the energy that you deduct from the electricity bill is self-consumed
instantaneously at the moment of production. The excess, i.e. the
proportion of energy produced by photovoltaic and consumed
simultaneously, will be sold with two different types: the direct or indirect
sales as mentioned above.
The total cost of investment is 35.805.160 , as following:

The income for the public body will be tied to the difference between the
increased incentive, if it is to be the same soggetto responsabile ( 0.422 /
kWh), and the incentive granted to the dealer where it was also responsible
for the plant ( 0.346 / kWh).
Through a contract of sale of the credit for 20 years, the public body grants
the incentives, in turn, the awardees will have to pay the fees to the City of
Cavriglia for each kWh produced by PV as a license fee at least 0.07 /
kWh per year.

Table 22: economic and financial
figures
74

Starting from the economic assumptions shown in the table below
(instalments of mortgage are calculated using the French model)
The payback is shown in the picture below:

Other additional RES investments are foreseen, once drained the other
40,000 square meters of the identified area.

Lesson Learnt
The following lessons have been derived from the phases expired till the
assignment of the tender in November 2010:

Great attention in the drafting of the contract with particular reference to
the applicable legislation must be taken, providing clear economic and
technical information:
Availability to give explanations which are made public by the
municipality for parcondicio to all bidders shall be provided
Establishment of a skilled committee responsible for evaluating
tenders in both technical and economic aspects is recommendable
An examination of the composition and financial soundness of the
joint venture partners (awarded the contract) must be done
carefully, considering the history that characterized them in the past;
Setting up by Municipality of a responsible for following initial and
following steps of the project is mandatory
Figure 14: breakeven point
Table 23: cost assumptions
75

Tessmann Landfill, San Antonio, State of Texas, U.S.A.

The use of land for landfill for household waste that are in post-operative
management, is definitely a great example of how marginal areas can be
positively exploited to create economic and social benefits to the
surrounding areas, a factor that is very important if the land is owned by a
public authority.
This is the case of exploitation for the production of electricity from the
sun of Tessmann landfill, located in Texas. The solar park created in the
period of its realization, was an example of technological and management
innovation of landfills, which will brought many benefits to the surrounding
communities. The following data takes in account what is reported in
documents issued by companies involved in carrying out the pilot and also
available on the Web.

Quick facts

Tessmann landfill was now in post-operative management as it was
exhausted and the most traditional solution was a coverage made by a
grassy soil layer. This solution, widely used, has several drawbacks:

High costs of realization because the volume of the soil to carry is
substantial
High maintenance costs, as it is frequent failure of the soil due to
heavy rain
Total loss of value of the land because in any case it could not have
been used

Location: Tessmann Landfill, San Antonio, State of Texas,
U.S.A.
Marginal terrain: landfill in post mortem
Terrain owner: Republic Services
Surface: 20,234.30 sqm (a small demonstrative part
of the landfill )
Total pv electrical
capacity foreseen : 135 kWp
Tecnology: amorphous silicon ( flexible shields)
Surface of panels: 2,250 square meters
Position on ground: sealed on protective canvas
Scope of the project: prototype demonstrative realization
Project
implementation: year 2009

76
The choice was that of exploiting the area for the photovoltaic power
production avoiding the cover with the layer of grass. It was expected to be
covered with flexible plastic material highly resistant to be laid directly on
the surface of the exhausted landfill. Above this support were positioned
and glued the photovoltaic modules, which cover about 1 / 10 of the
available area.

The Tessman Road solar energy cover has been recognized by the
engineering and renewable energy communities as an innovative
breakthrough. The project received the following recognitions in 2009:

Selected by the Texas Council of Engineering Companies as Gold
level winner in the Environmental category for its 2010 Engineering
Excellence Awards;
Selected as a finalist in the Renewable Energy Technology
Innovation of the year category for the Platts Global Energy
Awards.

The design and construction of the PVPP was very innovative. The plastic
cover consists of a wafer of high density polyethylen extremely resistant and
suitable for direct exposure to the sun and the extreme local environmental
conditions (solar radiation and intensive storms with heavy rain). This
cover, which is 1.5 mm thick, is placed directly on the surface of the landfill
and it is reinforced in the most critical points, which are subject to stress.
The total area capped by the plastic layer is about 2 hectares.
Above the plastic surface were lying directly 1'050 flexible photovoltaic
modules with a total area of approximately 2,250 square meters, capable of
a power peak of about 135kWp. The surface of the panels is only about
10% of available surface area, but the system was constructed to allow
future expansion.
In the picture below is shown the detail of the land section in the case of
Tessmann and in the case (image below) of a normal activity of post-
operative site management.

Figure 15: Solar Energy Cover
77
All material lies on a slope and particular attention was paid to channel
rainwater into the soil below the part exposed, since the sealing of the
underlying soil could be a problem.
To reduce the risk of damage caused by the infiltration of rain, were created
side channels to convey rain water and prevent its stagnation under the
coverage or create new channels of natural drainage.
In any case, because the life of the plant must be over 20 years, was used a
membrane with a manufacturer's warranty of 20 years. This was a key point
because the available data of a capping of this type does not have a very
long history because, this is a technology that has little more than 10 years
and there are no historical trends in performance over the long term.

It is not foreseen a Feed in Tariff, but only the benefits from selling
produced energy. Local and federal tax credits increase the net benefit of
the solar energy cover installation.

Sustainability principles and environmental aspects
More than just a win-win situation, the solar energy cover installed for
closure at the Tessman Road Landfill is a win-win-win. Solar-capped landfill
closures provide a triple play of benefits that includes generating renewable
energy, creating a revenue stream and eliminating negative carbon dioxide
emissions associated with maintaining (mowing, replacing fill dirt, etc.) a
traditional grass-covered landfill cap.
This project is an outstanding example of sustainable investment with a
high benefit/cost ratio. The combined renewable energy from the solar
panels and the landfill gas-to-energy system at the Tessman Road Landfill is
generating enough power to supply 5,500 homes, with ample room to
expand the solar panel-covered landfill surface. The savings to the
environment from this combined system equates to removing more than
1,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year compared to those same
homes using traditional sources of electricity. Landfill owner Republic
Services estimates that it could apply this technology to more than 2,300
acres of landfills it owns across the United States, with potential to generate
more than 400 megawatts of solar energy while also preventing emissions
from millions of tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.

Now it is verified the project's economic sustainability taking into account
the economic characteristics of the site and implementation of the project.
The main data are as follows:

Table 24: investments economic
figures
78

Considering the absence of a feed in tariff incentive we will evaluate costs
such as loss of all charges that would have been spent in any case even if the
project had not been realized. For this reason, even if the outlay for the
investment is 1'201'500 , from this we can subtract the cost that would
have to be spent if the landfill would not be involved by the project under
consideration. The investment is thus definitively of 652'000 .
Regarding maintenance costs, these will surely be supported, but at a much
lower than the expected cost and therefore the difference must be
considered as an income rather than a cost.
With these assumptions, not taking into account taxation, financial ratios
are as follows:

The payback period was about 18 years, while the NPV is negative. This
does not mean that the investment is not profitable, but simply that the
investment has an opportunity-cost that we could consider with a threshold
of (6%).
-800
-600
-400
-200
0
200
400
600
800
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Net Financial Position

An initial analysis might make us think that the lack of incentive rate is
detrimental to the investment so that it becomes unprofitable and therefore
not attractive. In reality, we must not forget that we are looking at an
Table 25
Table 16: Net Financial position-
breakeven point
79
experimental project and maintaining the profitability in these conditions is
certainly a good result.
To confirm what we mentioned above, we could try to imagine a similar
situation but increasing surfaces and installed modules until you get to a
PVPP of 1MW.
The basic parameters and the general principles should be kept constant,
while the new economic parameters are summarized in the following table:

In this case, the real investment is the difference between the total payment
(equal to 3'897'800) and the expected cost without a photovoltaic system
(equal to 1'320'000). The value is '2'577'800 .
The same things could be considered for variable costs/incomes.
These financial indexes are summarized in the following table:

The situation improved considerably, and the IRR is now close to the
minimum value proposed.

The Tessman Road Landfill solar energy cover project was initially designed
for installation on 5.6 acres of landfill side slope on the southern side of the
landfill, with ample room for later expansion of the solar covered area. In
fact, the permit modification is for a build-out area of over 50 acres of solar
energy cover as final cover.
Landfill owner Republic Services estimates that it could apply this
technology to more than 2,300 acres of landfills it owns across the United
States, with potential to generate more than 400 megawatts of solar energy,
while also preventing emissions from millions of tons of greenhouse gases
from entering the atmosphere.

Lesson learnt
By creating a power source immune to supply disruption, the solarized
landfill cap fosters energy independence. When using a solar energy cover
Table 27
Table 26: investments economic new
figures
80
as a modified landfill closure system, a solar energy landfill cap creates a
solar park from a landfill in a single closure construction project,
transforming a liability into a revenue stream with the following benefits:

Landfill post-closure care cost savings
Solar incentives and rebates for project construction
Solar renewable energy credits
Sale of renewable power
Carbon cap and trade credits
Positive image of sustainability and energy independence

The solar energy cover accomplishes more than many more complicated
energy systems efficient containment of greenhouse gases while
generating renewable solar electricity. The solar energy cover offers built-in
and affordable opportunities for a truly beneficial secondary use to the
worlds waste disposal facilities.
81
Thiva landfill, Viotia prefecture, Greece

It all starts with the sun and Greece offers not only one of the highest
irradiations in Europe but also one of the most attractive support schemes
for photovoltaic installations. The 2,0 MWp power station in Thiva will
transform abandoned land (waste dump area) into a highly profitable
investment.

The photovoltaic park is located in the municipality of Thiva just one hour
from the capital Athens. The park is based on quality components made in
Germany: aleo solar AG modules, Schletter FS mounting system and SMA
Solar Technology AG inverters. In the near future the park will be
expanded by another 600 kWp to reach the total power of 2,6 MWp.
The following information was provided by AEM, the Development
Company of the Municipality of Milies (the Greek partner of the project
PVs in BLOOM).

Quick facts

Location: Municipality of Thiva,
Viotia Prefecture -Greece
Marginal terrain: Dump
Owner: Private
Design and
implementation: DESMIE company
PV Plant
Comissioning: 2010
Nominal power: 2 MWp
Number of modules: 9,835 aleo solar AG
Inverters: 113 SMA Tripower 17000TL
Communication: Bluetooth

Table 17: investments economic new
figures
82
The project MW free field park in Thiva has been developed in close
cooperation with the Municipal Development Company of Milies and is
perceived as a practice case for large photovoltaic plants in abandoned areas
and potentially in the future for landfills.
The benefits for the small municipalities in the near environment are very
high. The citizens get a live example for green energy production in their
municipality area. Furthermore local companies have taken part to the
works during construction and jobs have been generated for the local
operation and security of the photovoltaic park. The photovoltaic MW
free field park in Thiva has thereby a positive effect on the local job
situation.
The private investor in return, thanks to the benefits of the incentive
program, will have a positive economic return on investment over the term
of 20 years to be made available for further activities in order to continue
the rehabilitation of the area.
It is a private land. Which was abandoned for many years and the
neighbours used it as a waste dump area (this is very common in Greece).
The municipality of the area uses its own waste dump area and not this one.
The realization of the PVPP was during February 2011. The owner has
signed contract with DESMIE based on support scheme for renewable
energy sources and the FIT is guaranteed for 20 years. According the Greek
legislation there is a possibility that the tariffs will be decreased (in a small
percentage) after some years.

The MW free field park in Thiva is designed in the most environmentally-
friendly way. Ramming profiles are used for the free field photovoltaic
mounting systems. The use of beton is limited to the minimum and the
ramming profiles can be removed after the life time of the photovoltaic
park returning the land into its original shape.

The MW free field park follows the shape of the land. Therefore large
excavation works were avoided.
The status of the land was waste dump area for many years. The
photovoltaic plant will turn the previously unused and abandoned area back
into production. An additional positive effect is the reduction of fire threat
during the summer time for abandoned land with high grass. The PV park
is now cleaned and under constant check by the local personnel. Also a
specific fire department license has been granted to the PV park verifying
the safety of the installation.
Figure 18: rendering of the ground PV
Plant
83
RSEnergy Hellas Solartechnik Ltd is a qualified partner of many leading
manufacturers. Working completely with quality components means the
investor will benefit from the security for the investment. The Municipal
Development Company of Milies team has a great interworking with
RSEnergy planning and implementation experts.
The SMA Tripower inverters are equipped with latest technology such as
two MPP trackers, high voltage input range and Bluetooth communication.
They offer highest flexibility in plant design and also over the 20 year
lifetime of the PV investment.
The picture below shows the top view CAD plan of the photovoltaic
system with the different rows of modules distributed in the field.
Transformators, ISOBOXES and a service road are also shown in the
CAD. The decentral inverters are installed behind the PV modules on the
free field mounting system.

The Greek government has taken bold initiatives for the development of
photovoltaic energy, offering not only generous financial incentives but also
simplifying the authorisation procedures as well. The table below provides
an overview on the feed in tariff system in Greece for different sizes PV
plants.

Figure 19: Lay out of the PV Plant
84

The business model is based on an official yield report performed by the
Center of Renewable Energy Sources in Athens Greece (CRES). The report
has been developed by this independent entity with input figures provided
by RSEnergy Hellas Solartechnik. For monthly values of solar irradiation
and temperatures the below figures have been considered.

Table 28: Monthly values of solar
irradiation and ambient temperature for
the site.
Table 27: Feed in Tariff
85
The table below shows the hourly values of solar irradiation at the
photovoltaic site according to existing climate data.

The graph below shows the sun path at the selected PV site location over
the year.

Taking all climate data and the technical configuration into consideration,
the Center of Renewable Energy Sources calculates the below energy
production over the year.

Table 29: Hourly values of solar
irradiation at tilt of 30 and South
orientation, of the mean daily profile per
mouth, for the site of installation. (in
kWh/m
2
)
Figure 20: Mean daily profiles for 4
months, for the size of installation
86

Based on the by law defined feed in tariff the financial return of the system
can be estimated as shown in the below graph.

(Information not available)

Lessons learnt
The combination of the financial incentives and terms, the high feed-in
tariff, the system cost and the solar radiation available are such, that the
investment in the 2 MWp system is attractive even without an initial
investment subsidy. For the average estimated PV electricity production of
1,351 kWh/kWp, and a yearly O&M cost taken as 100 kEuro, in all cases
the privately contributed capital is paid back in less than 8 years and the
IRR calculated at 20 years is equal more than 10.1 % for th worst case
scenario. Another important note is that in the past two years it has been
observed, that operating PV systems in Greece produce about 10 to 15 %
higher output that the estimated values due to the fact that in the recent
years the annually available solar radiation is higher than the values used
from the databases.
Figure 21: The development of
the money flow and the IRR per
kWp after tax deductions
Table 30: Estimated annual
electrical energy produced by the
PV plant.
87
Ronneburg mining area, Austria

An elevated photovoltaic plant with an installed capacity of 4.45 MWp was
built on the site of a former uranium ore mining area.
Extending to the boundaries of the city of Ronnenburg, the location
belongs to the renovated and revitalized areas, which were once
predominantly used as mine waste dump sites.
As far as the urban planning is concerned, the location should be also
considered as integrated into the surroundings, because it is directly
connected to the existent industrial properties, and as a result the outskirt
area of the site does not have an isolated position.
The total area of the development plan intended for the solar park includes
approximately 25 ha.
The area to be sealed for construction purposes within the site covered by
the development plan lies on maximal 2% including the locations for
inverters, transformer stations, etc.
The water balance of the conversion area must be preserved in form of on
site water seepage since for the lack of draining canals, the discharge of
surface water on a large scale is not possible.
The plate structures are fixed in certain spots into the ground as piled
foundations. The surfaces under the modules and between the module rows
have not been covered and sealed in order to be used extensively.
The supply takes place in the medium-voltage power grid on a voltage level
of 20 kV. The feed point is located at a distance of 2.15 km.
The following information was provided by IR STYRIA, the Austrian
partner of the project PVs in BLOOM.

Quick facts

Location: Ronneburg (Thuriniga, Germany)
Size of the property
for the solar park: ca. 250,000 sqm
Owners: GLS Energie AG
Investors: GLS Energie AG
Holders of the
management of
the settlement: GLS Solarenergie GmbH & CoKG
CAPACITY: 4.45 MWp
Project cost: 11,6 Mio
Status of ground
photovoltaic: In operation since December 2009
88
The area where the Solar Park is situated is former mining and waste dump
land which similar to a waste site needs to be serviced in the so called
follow-up care and does not allow for any development in the sense of
building constructions or any use as industrial real estates.
The area was completely redeveloped by the WISMUT GmbH in the
course of the general decommissioning, decontamination and land
restoration of uranium mining areas and processing plants. Since its
foundation in the year 1991 the WISMUT GmbH who is an associate of the
Federal Republic of Germany has become a partner with a unique know-
how in the area of technologies for the decontamination of radioactive toxic
waste, which is deployed also on an international level.

The project in detail: technical specifications about the solar park in
Ronneburg

Type of power plant: solar electricity
Capacity: 4.45 MWp
Commissioning: 2009
Location: Ronneburg (former uranium ore mining area)
Technical equipment: photovoltaic plant with grid connection
Inverter: 3 SMA SC1000MV inverters + 1 SMA SC1250MV
inverter
Supply: 20 kV grid
Solar power generators: 49,246 solar panels with thin-layer module
technology
Solar module installation: rows of fix support frames with 2
modules positioned one above the other
Module bracket: inserting system for frameless modules
Inclination angle: 25
Orientation: South

Within the framework of the whole project, Bosch Solar held the position
of general contractor and solar panels from Bosch Solar based on
amorphous silicon were installed.
The construction for the free-standing plant started in the late autumn 2009
after comprehensive preliminary works.

The annual power output was estimated to 4,023,000 kWh for a standard
year, which corresponds to a CO2 emission reduction of 2,646 t/y and to
an annual consumption of 1,144 four-person households:

Submission to authority: 29/08/2008
Preparation of the development plan: July 2009
Beginning of the construction works: November 2009
Installation of the solar generator: December 2009
Commissioning and opening: 18 December 2009

89
The solar generators are positioned in rows with an optimal orientation to
the South. Through the supporting construction the inclination angle of the
solar module is positioned at 25 from the horizontal. The distance between
the rows has been determined in a way that - through their own shading
effect - the output losses reach an optimum in proportion to the installed
total capacity.
As a result the string connection occurs horizontally so that the modules
belonging to a string are placed respectively side by side in an upper row or
in a lower row. This has a twofold advantage: firstly, a homogeneous
radiation effect within a string and secondly, snow cover sticking in winter
on the lower module row causes limited consequences. Anyway, through
the use of frameless modules, the snow can easily slide away as the lower
module frame is no longer acting as a horizontal barrier.

For the support frame of the solar generator, piled foundation was applied
on which inclined brackets were installed. On these brackets a horizontal
profile was screwed on each upper and lower part on which the module
support profiles were fixed (System Habdank).
In these special module support profiles, the modules are mounted thanks
to a pug-in system (module insertion from the top).

Figure 22
Figure 23
90
The strings are placed in sub-distribution boards and these are operated in
string monitor boxes in order to control the strings. In this way, the single
string groups are monitored and mutually checked. In case of anomaly of
one string group in respect to the others, an alarm message is generated in
consideration of the range of tolerance and sent to the service staff.
The solar park has been built according to the module blocks with central
inverters. The 4 central inverters are installed respectively in a concrete
station and have one medium voltage transformer per station. As a result,
there is no conversion into low voltage suitable for the grid, which leads to
a better efficiency of the inverters.
The electricity generated from the sun in the individual stations is conveyed
through the 20 kV level in a separated transmission station to the grid
operator, which also hosts a supply measurement. From the transmission
station, the supply cable leads to the defined feed point on the interurban
road.

The only benefit is the priority of solar energy established in the Renewable
energies act and the compensation for the produced electricity with a feed-
in tarif of 31,94 Cent/kWh for free standing plants according to the
renewable energies act at that time (June 2008).

Business plan main items

Lessons learnt
The Ronneburg Solar Park is a remarkable example for the conversion of
an environment, which was seriously damaged due to uranium ore mining
activities, into a promising area with ecological production of energy thanks
to the restructuring of the mine waste dump site.
For the inhabitants who suffered disease-causing uranium dust in the air for
decades, the quality of life in the region has increased enormously. The
Solar Park with its production of electricity free from emissions is a further
milestone for economic developments.

Advantaging factors for implementing the Solar Park Ronneburg were

a strong political will
an experienced promoter and partner for financial issues
positive financial conditions (FIT)

Table 37
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Eberstalzell buffer zone, Austria

With an output of 1 megawatt, the solar power plant has been feeding
around 1000 megawatt hours of green electricity a year into the public grid
of Energie AG - Upper Austria's regional energy supplier - since May 2010.
With a collector area of approximately 8,000 m, the photovoltaic power
plant in Eberstalzell is about the size of two football fields.
During the first year of operation the energy output already reached
1,175,000 kilowatt hours, which is far beyond what was expected and stated
in the output plan.
In the area of the Solar Campus in Eberstalzell - not far from the motorway
A1 - the focus lies not only in the production of green energy from the sun,
but also on intensive research thanks to a sophisticated system consisting of
state-of-the-art thin-layer modules and inverters.

The core elements which play a key role for the applied research on the
photovoltaic plant include permanently positioned and elevated panels, an
experimental field and flexible solar cells orienting themselves to the sun's
location. The system benefits from thin-layer modules, which are installed
in the power plant, and from a total of six flexible supports, the so-called
movers and trackers.

Thanks to the flexible control and positioning system of the units, the
power plant is extremely interesting for the field research. According to
the location of the sun, these units can best orient themselves at the optimal
angle towards sun light, in order to reach the maximal solar yield too. This
aims to show in a more evident way the variations in capacity of these
panels in comparison with more conventional PV modules. Thanks to the
optimal orientation of the panels, solar power experts expect an up to 40
percent output increase.

Figure 24: Photovoltaik plant and the
Future Center Solar. In the background
the movers / trackers (Source:
Energie AG Oberoesterreich)
92

The solar plant has a further advantage: the installed technology and the use
of inverters can not only be operated at the same time without a decrease in
the power generation, but it is also possible to examine new operational
solutions and to prove their feasibility directly on site. Besides, Energie AG
solar power experts are now awaiting feedback about the effects of weather
conditions, component ageing, service life and variations in power output
caused by the natural soiling of the collector surfaces.
partner of the Project PVS in BLOOM.

Quick facts

Figure 25: Mounting of the trackers
(Source: Energie AG Oberoesterreich)
Location: Eberstalzell (Upper Austria, Austria)
Size of the property
for the solarcampus: 65,000 sqm
Owner: Energie AG Obersterreich Renewable Power GmbH
Investor: Energie AG Obersterreich Renewable Power GmbH
Holder of the
management of
the settlement: Energie AG Obersterreich Renewable Power GmbH, Mr.
Michael Mascherbauer, MSc
Capacity: 1,05 MWp
Project costs: - Equipement of the photovoltaic plant: ~. 3 Mio Euro
- Purchase of the whole site (PVPP and Future Center) 6,5 ha,
- Research facilities and extra equipment for the research work,
Information and visitors center (ZukunftsZentrum der Energie
AG) ~ 3,5 Mio Euro
- Overall cost: ~.6,5 Mio Euro
Status of ground
photovoltaic: In Operation since May 2010

93
The photovoltaic plant in Eberstalzell is a good example of a plant in a
buffer zone along the infrastructure such as roads, railroads, power lines.
The site is directly on a busy motorway, which makes the use of agriculture
rather unattractive. For the connected competence and info centre, this
location, due to its good transport links, however, is of great benefit.

The project in details:
Technical specifications about Energie AG solar power plant

Type of power plant: solar electricity
Capacity: 1,050 kWp
Commissioning: 2010
Location: Eberstalzell (directly along motorway A1)
Technical equipment: Photovoltaic plant with grid connection
Inverter: fronius CL48
Supply: 30 kV grid
Solar power generators: solar panels from five different producers
as well as an experimental field with various thin-layer module
technologies
Solar module: mono and poly silicon cells, thin-layer panels
Solar module installation: Fixed support frames and six solar
tracking systems (trackers)
Inclination angle: 30<
Orientation: South

Solar panels have been selected in a way that enables to maximise the know-
how. In addition to the installation of classical crystalline solar cells from
five different producers, the system is conceived to gain insight in the new
thin-layer module technologies:

Amorphous silicon: Schott (D)
Copper indium selenide: Wrth Solar (D), Mia Sole (USA)
Cadmium telluride: First Solar (USA, D)

The construction of the free-standing plant started in the late autumn 2009
after comprehensive preliminary works. The perfect location for the
impressive large-scale plant is a 60,000 sqm site along the motorway
Westautobahn near Eberstalzell in the Wels-Land district. The annual
energy output has been estimated to almost 1,000,000 kWh for a standard
year.

Site selection: Autumn 2008
Planning: Spring 2009
Submission to authority: 14/4/2009
Negotiations of the authority: 18/5/2009
Beginning of the construction works: 8th July 2009
Call for tenders: Summer 2009
94
Beginning of the construction works for the Info Centre: December
2009
Installation of the solar generator: Spring 2010
First power output: 21st May 2010
Commissioning and opening: 18th September 2010

The focus on research represents a relevant part of the project. Through the
solar tracking generators (trackers) an analysis of the additional power
output in comparison with financial extra costs is carried out. A
comprehensive monitoring programme supports the visualisation. Besides,
an Info Centre was founded which hosts technical equipment and is also
used to hold presentations and provide general information.
Solar generators are positioned in rows and are exactly oriented to the
South. Solar modules are installed with an inclination angle of 30 from the
horizontal. The distance between the rows is 11 m. This installation of the
modules in rows provides a land-use value of 0.27. An output loss of
approximately 1% due to snow cover has been taken into account.
The stings are interconnected in a way that each upper and lower row forms
a string. The advantage is that - in snow condition - through sliding the
upper string can already generate power, while the lower string is still
covered with snow. The mutual shading of the rows leads to a decrease in
output of approximately 2%. If the modules from the upper and lower row
were connected in series, the loss of shading would lie on 3%.
Piled foundations have been used for the support frames of the solar
generators. The support frames of the single rows have been also bonded
with additional multiple electro-conductive connections to each other, in
order to reach a good potential equalisation in the solar generator field. The
modules have been mounted through special screws to protect against theft.
The single stings of the solar generators are monitored. If a string turns out,
the defect will be detected and the operating staff will be alerted.
After a close consideration of advantages and disadvantages, the operator
has decided in favour of a central inverter concept. The inverters will be
Figure 26: Output of the power plant
95
installed on the ground floor of the Info Centre in order to be protected
from wind and weather conditions and to reach a longer life expectancy.
The photovoltaic plant in connected to the medium-voltage power grid
through a 1 km long, 3kV underground cable. The capacity of the new
power transformers lies on 1250 kVA.
In case of a lightning strike, the massive aluminium profile of the cross
beams (purlins) will conduct the charge down to the ground through the
profile of the piles. The module plates are equipped with an air termination
rod. According to ALDIS (Austrian Lightning Detection and Information
System) the frequency of lightning strikes for one square kilometre lies in
this area on 1.3 flashes per year. The plant covers approximately 5 ha, which
corresponds to 1/20 of 1 km. As a result we have to reckon on average on
a lightning strike every 15.5 years.

The feed-in tariff amounts to 25c/kWh for 13 years according to the
Austria Green Energy Act (Oekostromverordnung).

The Energie AGs "SolarCampus" is not only a photovoltaic power plant,
but is also used extensively for active applications research. For this reason
there is no traditional business plan, but a specially adapted R&D concept,
which was particularly developed for this plant. This concept therefore is
not conventional, compared to an optimized system design under an
economic viewpoint. Especially the research program tuned engineering
system is focused primarily on making the different panel types comparable
under different operating conditions and to incorporate the knowledge
gained in the development of future photovoltaic concepts.

The Future Centre of the Solar Campus: operational building and Info
Centre. On the plant site it was necessary to build an operational building
for the technical equipment of the power plant. Energie AG used this
opportunity to expand the operational building into a centre of excellence
for renewable energies, power efficiency and innovation.

Figure 27: Information Center

96
The power plant is used for active applied research. Thanks to its size, the
solar power station becomes a perfect experimental and research plant for
photovoltaics. Investigations concerning different panel technologies and
inverter concepts are underway.

The centre combines high level of excellence in research and state-of-the art
technology. For instance, the heating and cooling occurs through its own
CO2 heat pump and the centre is equipped with a heat recovery which is
integrated into the ventilation system. The Future Centre is not only an
ecological prototype building; it also hosts presentations about future-
oriented topics in the field of renewable energies and power efficiency.
Connected to the Upper Austria's fibre optic network and located not far
away to the motorway A1, the new centre is not only conceived as a
venue for multimedia-based presentations but also as a perfect meeting and
conference hall.
Thanks to the construction of electric vehicle charging stations, the Future
Centre is also the ideal place for refueling all types of electric vehicles.

Lessons Learnt
A broad involvement of regional decision makers enhances the
future sustainability of PV initiatives.
The selection of the body responsible for running the project - a
regional energy supplier - enables to root the PV issue in the region
in a sustainable way.
The combination of a solar plant and parallel research serves not
only the optimized use of renewable energies, but also supports the
region as far as knowledge-intensive and innovative companies and
workplaces are concerned.
Field research (13 different panels) for different solar panels and
weather conditions already allow first qualified conclusions, which
make a valuable contribution for future PV systems:
The different panels show only a slight fluctuation in the
electricity production.
The additional returns of tracked systems are economically
only difficult to visualize.
The maximum efficiency of the panels is only in the range
of 14%.
The soiling by pollen is higher than emissions from vehicles.
Figure 28: Cross-section through the
Information Center (Source: Energie AG
Oberoesterreich)
97
In addition to crystalline panel types in future also the
stability of thin film modules will be observed and explored
for several years.
98
Power Park with citizen participation
Murek Graz Region - Austria

Project description
This project was devoleped by SEBA Mureck GmbH Sonnen Energie
BuergerInnen Anlage (www.sebamureck.at), who is the owner of all
respective intellectual property rights regarding the below described model.
In the environment of Mureck 320 citizens from 7 communities decided to
finance a photovoltaic plant as a PV citizen plant. Thus the creation of
value remains with the citizens of the region in a sustainable way. The
SEBA Mureck GmbH was founded in 2010, after 2 years of wide ranging
prearrangement, information meetings and authorization procedures. This
is a supplementary part, which was developed for the comprehensive overall
concept in the framework of the energy park of Mureck i.e. biodiesel, local
heat, biogas and green electricity with raw materials, from the region for the
region. Altogether during the last 20 years, 34 million Euro were invested.
The financial means were raised from the equity capital, through long term
credits and through the aids from the land, government and the EU. The
projects amortise most of the times after 20 years.
partner.

Quick facts

The concept with the objectives climate protection, safety, occupation and
life quality for the small region Mureck is realized with the regional
structures from 2010 onwards, step by step with the scientific attendance of
the technical university of Graz.
The solar power plant serves also as a research plant. In the energy park of
Mureck and in the information centre, interested parties can benefit from
the experience of the operators regarding the use of energy from renewable
sources. On the way with sun is the motto of the innovative pilot and
Location: Mureck, Styria, Austria
Owner: SEBA Mureck GmbH
Investors: 320 citizens and 7 communities from the small region
of Mureck
Holder of the
management
of the settlement: SEBA Mureck GmbH
Capacity: 2.000 kWp (1st stage of extension: 1050 kWp; 2nd
stage of extension: 950 kWp to be completed in 2012)
Project cost: 6 Mio
Status of ground
photovoltaic: Operative since 3/2011
99
research project, which should motivate many communities in Austria to
imitate it.
The pilot and research project Sun Energy Citizen Plant Mureckof the
SEBA Mureck GmbH is realized on two stages of extension. The first stage
with 1.050 kWp is in service since the 14th of March 2011. The second
stage of extension with approx. 950 kWp will be realized in 2012 with
additional technical innovations.

The complete project of PV with citizen participation was realized as
follows:

2008

Idea of the PV citizen plant on open land
Information trip to Bayern with representatives from the economic
sector and politics
Development of the overall concept with 8 members of the project
committee in 5 innovative meetings
Presentation of the overall concept in all the 7 communities

2009

Talks on alternative energy sources in the course of the
presentation of the overall concept to stakeholders (on the regional
and national level)
Information assemblies in two communities with a minimum of 150
stakeholders at any one time
Binding share subscription (deadline - 30th of November 2009)
On the 30th of November the first stage of extension with 197
binding registrations and a total of 1.050 kWp is already
oversubscribed.
Project planning, property protection via leasing option, application
for the reallocation of land, information assembly with neighbours

2010

Company foundation SEBA Mureck GmbH (April 2010)
Citizen information in another community with 160 persons
Collection of electricity Application via the settlement centre for
green electricity according to the green electricity act in cooperation
with the regional electricity suppliers
Share subscriber information assembly in 2 communities (June)
Start of construction at the beginning of August concerning the
infrastructure, 20 KV line; data cable, street, fencing
Eurosolar-Austria-award in Mureck
Information assembly for the second stage of extension
(November)

2011

100
The first stage of extension with 1.050 kWp and the pilot plant of
the technical university of Graz with 4 x 5 kWp is operative since
the 14th of March 2011 and supplies CO2 emission free electricity.

The open land plant is located close to the already existing plants of the
region for the production of energy from raw materials (biogas and green
electricity with raw materials from the region; biodiesel from UCO and
rapeseed oil; local heat from wood and waste heat).
On 23.000 square meters, 4300 modules were arranged in the first stage of
extension with a capacity of 1.050 kWp. In the second stage of extension
another 950 kWp will be installed by 2012.
The electrical power is fed in the electricity supply network.
Currently 5000 t of Co2 are saved per year.

General contractor: Elin GmbH & Co KG
Planning of the plant: Engineering company Ing. Leo Riebenbauer
GmbH
Modules: 4.300 pieces BLUE CHIP ENERGY GMBH
Construction of the mounting: K.A.T GmbH

Figure 29: (Source: SEBA Mureck
GmbH)

101

In the foreground the residence area of the township Mureck. Behind it the
PVPP 1st stage of extension 1.050 kWp. On the open space will be
constructed the 2nd stage of extension 950 kWp. In the background on the
left the biogas-green electricity plant, beside it the local heat plant and the
plant for biodiesel. In the sorroundings the small region of Mureck with its
6 other communities (figure 3 Source: SEBA Mureck GmbH)

Feed-in tariff and other benefits
The feed-in-tariff for the year 2011 is 6 c/kWh.
From 2012 for the next 13 years it will be 25c/kWh according to the
Austria Green Energy Act (Oekostromverordnung).
Afterwards will be paid the market price.
Additionally the project received subsidies from the regional administration
for 13 percent of the construction costs.

In order to make it possible for a high number of citizens to participate in
the plant, a socially compatible model was developed. A person, a company,
a community had the possibility to purchase a minimum of 2 and a
maximum of 10 share certificates for 1.000,00 EUR each. Additionally, the
share certificates could be paid in instalments. The interest in it was so high
that the share certificates for the first stage of extension were
oversubscribed after a short period of time.

Business Plan main topics and investment indicators
The back payment of the capital to the shareowners should be carried out
within 20 years.

Figure 30: Aerial view oft he ground
photovoltaic plant
102

Business data estimated (after implementing the 2nd stage of extention):

Project costs: 6 Mio (thereof 13 % by funding)
Running costs: ~ 70 T
The feed-in-tariff for the year 2011 is 6 c/kWh.
From 2012 for the next 13 years it will be 25c/kWh according to
the Austria Green Energy Act (Oekostromverordnung). Afterwards
will be paid the market price.

Additionally the project received subsidies from the regional administration
for 13 percent of the construction costs.

The PVPP represents a part of an overall project with 5 partial projects
which were realized since the year 2010 step by step and which were
scientifically attended:

The university of Technology of Graz could be gained to assist the project
scientifically. The central research aspects are as follows:

Regional emergency energy supply
Energy storage
Mobility
Exploration of electricity fluctuations in the network

The following is planned:
Greenhouses for cultivation of organic vegetables and
integrated greenhouses equipped with solar systems on the
roof surface.

Table 33
Table 32: Calculation for share
certificates for the second stage of
extension (according to the citizen
information)
103
Many advantages support this efficient model for the use of green
electricity:

Self-initiative of the citizens community value
Decentralized energy production with regional structures
Energy from sun for 600 households or 1.000 e-vehicles
Motivation for the use of e-mobility and research for energy storage,
self-sustained energy supply in practice
Additionally 5.000 tonnes of CO2 savings per year, thus with the
already existing enterprises a total of 57.000 tonnes of CO2 can be
saved per year
Economic growth model 2.400 plants in Austria as objective with
an additional 16.500 green jobs in the photovoltaic sector
Creation of value for the region as a contribution to the
maintenance of social peace

Hence, the innovative pilot research project of SEBA Mureck has an
inestimable national economic value, and will boost the urgently required
ecologic and social energy revolution.

Lessons learnt
The organizer well grounded in the region who together with his
team which has already demonstrated the power of realization and
experience several times, was very decisive for this project;
Plan the set-up time (in this case 2 years till the delve of spade);
Integration of stakeholders from the economic sector and politics
since the beginning;
Each project requires comprehensive information and education so
that it can be realized with the population without essential
problems;
Transfer of knowledge: already currently 5,000 to 6,000 visitors are
coming per year from all continents to the region in order to see the
projects.

104
Final recommendations for triggering investments by
overriding barriers and avoiding dangerous risks

In the previous chapters of this document we analyzed the characteristics of
investments in PVPPs with a focus on those to be constructed on marginal
areas.
In particular, it was described who are the main stakeholders who can be
potentially involved in the investment, the possible barriers that may hinder
the system performances, and the incentives that instead can encourage the
development of such investments. Nonetheless, it was described which are
the main financial instruments and the procedures used to set the
contractual aspects.
Further, in the above analysis two possible cases were examined. On one
hand, we focused on the case in which a public body (i.e. a municipality)
intends to build a new PV system - either directly or through the
identification of a private investor chosen by a public tender - on its
marginal area. On the other hand, we considered a situation where the
investment is made by a private organization on a marginal area which is
under a private ownership.

Investments made by a public body
When a municipality would like to develop a project to install a new PV
power system on a marginal area which is part of its property, the first
evaluations will have to cover:

The identification of a suitable marginal area on which to install the
system
The financial and economic aspects associated to the investment by
preparing a business plan

With regards to the first point it will be useful to map the marginal areas
available on the municipalitys territory and classify them by using both
general and economic criteria.
While assessing the general characteristics, among other things, it would be
necessary to examine how easy is to get the new PV system connected to
the grid as well as the attainability to the site. Further, a priority should be
given to those areas presenting a low environmental impact and this
evaluation should be carried out considering the type of investment to be
made and the legislation applicable on the territory.
Likewise, the economic characteristics will have to be verified according to
the applicable feed-in tariff system as stated by the national and regional
legislation. Further, in some cases investments made on marginal areas may
be rewarded more than other type of investments. For instance, although
with some differences, in countries like Italy and Spain PV projects on
marginal areas allow the investors to obtain an additional premium (in Italy
this additional premium account for an additional 5% whilst in Spain it is
limited to regional development policies).
105
Of course, the economic analysis will have to cover not only the marginal
area characteristics but the entire project including the costs for the
construction, maintenance, insurance and so forth. Such an analysis is useful
not only in the case of direct investment made by a public body but also
when the same public body prefers to assign the work to a qualified partner
which will make the investment. In fact, in the latter case, the analysis will
allow the public body:

To get a greater awareness of how the investment should be
developed and which is the best way to invest
To define coherent objectives to be pursued with the investment
To identify how to set the relating procedures
To increase its contractual power

An important theme under discussion is the internal stability and its
constraints on the municipalities budget which in some cases could make
the investment not possible at least in financial terms.
Possible solutions could come from the exploration of all the financial
instruments that public institutions may access to.
Another important aspect for the public body is the organization of the
public tender as it could affect the success of the project.
Preliminary, the public body has to indentify which is the public interest
that it intends to protect, through the implementation of the project. It is
not simple to find a legislative definition of public interest however it can be
referred to a conceptual description noting that it is associated to some
expressions such as collective, social, or general interest.

In preparing the public notice and in arranging for the public tender a few
basic principles have to be respected. They are listed below:

Transparency
Non-discrimination
Proportionality
Equal treatment

The above principles are aimed to guarantee that public bodies play a
neutral role in choosing the project developer avoiding forms of collusion
or corruptions. Also, proper preparation of the notice and a correct way of
running public tender, may lead to:

The possibility to successfully manage the initial objectives;
A reduction of probability that not winning applicants or external
organizations can take legal action against the public body which
could slow the development of the project and this may result in
economic damage for the municipality.

106
To avoid possible problems during the running of the public tender the
basis is to prepare a clear document that will specify:

The characteristics of the marginal area;
Type of investment:
Technical requirements;
Legal and administrative aspects;
Procedure (step by steps);
How to communicate with the responsible office;

Good practices suggest including possible obligations for the project
developer regarding the decommissioning.
As described in the previous chapter of this document, the
decommissioning of a PV plant may include removal of solar system
components, buildings, foundations, tanks, and other components. Virtually
the entire land area of the solar development will be impacted by
decommissioning and deconstruction activities.
At the end of the operation of the solar plant, lasting probably around 20
years according to the applicable timing of the Feed in tariff regime, the
decommissioning of the plant will be a relevant issue.
In fact, although the EC has not approved yet a specific PV modules
decommissioning legislation -based on the analysis of the applicable
national legislations (with reference to Those Countries Involved in the
Project) - it is possible to point out the following suggestions.

Firstly, the public tender has to contain the concessionaire for the duty for
decommissioning the PV plant. The relevant municipality will provide
information regarding:

Procedures for demolishing or dismantling panels and facilities;
Activities related to the restoration of the land;
Procedures for managing waste and excess materials.

Furthermore, the Public Body has to require financial assurance to the
concessionaire on the implementation of the Decommissioning Activities.

To this regard, it could be important in the tender documents to specify the
circumstance that the financial assurance is required with reference to:

During construction decommissioning (abandonment of project)
Decommissioning after ceasing operation
Potential restoration of lands negatively affected by the facility.

With reference to above, the financial assurance amount could be
calculated, for example, based on the amount of waste which will be
managed in such activities. It would be also possible to add a clause in the
tender document stating that after ceasing operations, being the public body
owner of the land, it may decide to renew the concession. The issue is
strictly connected to the evaluation of public interest at the time of renewal,
which depends on the future Feed-in Tariff scheme.
107
Yet, the notice may provide - and this indeed in the initial phase of the
project - the restoration of the original as in the case of leachate in landfills.

Investments made by a private organization/individual on its
property

In the previous chapter it was pointed out that investments in PVPPs are
often slowed by a series of obstacles or barriers.
First types of obstacles are the administrative barriers. On the one hand,
they usually concern the complexity of those procedures that municipalities
define to obtain the necessary authorization to construct a new PV system.
On the other hand, administrative barriers refer to significant differences
that can be observed within the same country.
Regarding these issues, several initiatives have already been promoted but
further measures are still needed in order to remove all the factors that may
affect the investments in the above sector. Obviously, the relevant
institutions can play a key role in the development PVPP investments and
this is even more important for those initiatives involving marginal areas.
Investors are called to carry out analysis as to the regulatory system that can
be applicable in the country as well as in the specific local area where the
investment should be made.

Further audits will cover the geographical area, the possibility access to the
site and possible difficulties to get the PVPP connected to the grid.
With regards to the latter point, two types of barriers have been highlighted
and they are listed below:

Administrative barriers
Technical barriers.

As for the administrative barriers, a first aspect to take into account is that
the procedures defined to connect new facilities to the grid frequently
require submitting a high number of documents and they are often imposed
by the Regulations and/or the local utilities. There are countries where the
documentation to submit does not change with respect to the size of the
PVPPs to be constructed.
Nonetheless, it is not rare to see remarkable differences among the
procedures defined by local utilities or there may be situations where small
decentralized renewable energy sources are blocked by Local Authorities or
again by the local utilities. Of course, the impact of these differences in the
development of PVPPs to be constructed on marginal areas may be even
more important.
As already mentioned in this document, technical barriers are generally
recognized to be caused by a lack of knowledge of the European and
national regulatory frameworks and a lack of understanding of renewable
energy technologies. In effect, besides administrative barriers and
bottlenecks, there is a series of technical barriers which project developers
and product manufacturers bear continuously such as the lack of
standardization and testing procedures.
Requirements, that vary from utility to utility, are typically not transparent
enough, and not uniformly applied, which effectively results in additional
108
costs for manufacturers to comply with the requirements. Under this
framework, economies of scale are limited since manufacturers cannot offer
unique pieces of equipment for the European market. This, of course, may
affect the final price of PV modules.
Turning the attention to more general aspect, private organization that
would like to invest in new PVPPs on a marginal area which is under a
public ownership, should carefully examine the content of the public tender
document identifying all the requirements to be matched. The document
may also include obligations for the decommissioning and this factor must
be included in the business plan.
Prior to making the investment, it will be also important to check the
potential existence of third parties who are against the investment.
Generally speaking, the installation and operations of a solar energy system
through the exploitation of the photovoltaic conversion brings about an
important form of landscape transformation. In fact, technologies offer a
low level of conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic cells and thus a
remarkable physical dimension is required to construct a PVPP. For this
reason, it might happen that local communities/association does not view
the construction of such system as an opportunity.

Also, strict requirements may be asked by the local administration on the
assessment of the landscape impact. The main landscape impacts of
photovoltaic systems are as follows:

Land use
Reduction of cultivable land
Fragmentation of the countryside
Plant degradation
Visual impact on the landscape
Interference between Fauna and Flora
Microclimate change
Glare
Electromagnetic fields
Construction phase impacts

Evaluation of the economic part of the call also considers to the possibility
of access to credit and financial instruments available for the private sector.
109
Appendix

Useful Links

The PVs in Bloom project:
www.pvsinbloom.eu

Photovoltaic Geografical Information System (PVGIS)
re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/

European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA)
www.epia.org

Photovoltaic Technology Platform
www.euplatform.org

PVWATTS
www.pvwatts.org

IBC Solar
monitor.ibc-solar.de

Intelligent Energy Europe
Programmeec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/index_en.html

Eurosolar
www.eurosolar.de

European Energy Regulators
www.energy-regulators.eu

IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme
www.iea-pvps.org
110
Contacts

PARTNER Unioncamere del Veneto
COUNTRY Italy
ADDRESS Via delle Industrie 19/D
30175 Marghera (Ve)
Tel. +39 041 0999311
Fax. +39 041 0999401
www.ven.camcom.it
CONTACT PERSON Mrs. Erica Holland
Tel. +39 041 0999411
Fax. +39 041 0999401
erica.holland@eurosportelloveneto.it

PARTNER Punto Energia Provincia di Sassari
COUNTRY Italy
ADDRESS Z.I. Predda Niedda Nord, strada 28
07100 Sassari
www.puntoenergiass.com
CONTACT PERSON Mr. Antonio G. Rassu
Tel. +39 079 3026029
Fax. +39 079 3026212
energy@tin.it
direttore@puntoenergiass.com

PARTNER Municipality of Milies
COUNTRY Greece
ADDRESS 191 Larisis street, Milies
CONTACT PERSON Mr. George Agrigiannis
38334, Volos
Tel. +30 2421078391 to -5
Fax. +30 2421078215
gagrig@eapilio.gr
111

PARTNER University of Jaen Electronics and Control
Systems Department Office
COUNTRY Spain
ADDRESS Campus de Las Lagunillas s/n
23071 - Jaen
CONTACT PERSON Mr. Jorge Aguilera
aguilera@ujaen.es

PARTNER Cmara Oficial de Comercio, Industria y
Navegaci n de Valencia
COUNTRY Spain
ADDRESS Jess, 19 46007 Valencia
CONTACT PERSON Mr. Alberto Rodrigo Rosslo
Tel. +34 96 310 39 00
Fax. +34 96 353 17 46
arodrigo@camaravalencia.com

PARTNER University of Lublin Physiscs Department
COUNTRY Poland
CONTACT PERSON Krystian Cielak
Tel. 0048815384701-700
k.cieslak@pollub.pl

112

PARTNER Innovation Region Styria GmbH
COUNTRY Austria
ADDRESS Liebenaurer Hauptstrasse 2-6,
8041 Graz, Austria
CONTACT PERSON Mr. Walter Schrittwieser
A-8010 Graz, Hasnerplatz 6
Tel. +43 316 676728 40
Fax. +43 316 676728 10
walter.schrittwieser@mindconsult.com

PARTNER Italian-Slovak Chamber of Commerce
COUNTRY Slovak Republic
ADDRESS Michalsk 7 811 01 Bratislava
CONTACT PERSON Giorgio Dovigi
g.dovigi@camitslovakia.sk

GUIDE
Ground Photovoltaic investments on marginal areas
PVs in BLOOM project a new challenge for land valorisation within a strategic eco-
sustainable approach to local development

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Ground Photovoltaic investments on marginal areas

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