One of the objectives set by Italy is that the nation should produce 22% of its energy from renewable sources by 2010.

Among the various initiatives aimed at reaching this target, Article no. 7 of legislative decree 29 n 387 of 29/12/2003 lays down that there will be a special incentive tariff for electricity produced by means of photovoltaic conversion of solar power:

the so-called “ENERGY ACOUNT”.

Photovoltaic technology, in fact, allows energy associated with solar radiation to be transformed directly into electrical energy, by using the properties of certain materials – including silicon – known as semiconductors.

For it to do its work, a photovoltaic installation needs to follow certain technical specifications and it needs to be “grid-tied”, that is, the installation needs to be connected to the national grid. For this reason we shall focus our attention on these systems.

Generally speaking “we don’t expect carriage makers to be initiate railway building”, and yet in the case of this technological innovation the earliest concerted initiative was taken by the big oil companies.

There are many ways this can be interpreted, but from 2005 onwards, thanks to the introduction of this promotional legislation, Italy, too has seen the take-off phase for whole field of photovoltaic technology, the field in which Gte has chosen to specialise, offering those standards of quality in both installation and service that have always been its hallmark.

Although the subject is absolutely topical and is widely publicised, there is a tendency for certain sources to exaggerate or to downgrade the importance of information in this area or to create confusion.

It is, therefore, our opinion that it is time to help those wanting to increase their knowledge in this area so that they can make informed decisions regarding such an important investment as the installation of a photovoltaic system, by highlighting, emphasising and commenting current ideas.

This, then, is the aim of our article.

To make reading the article as simple as possible, we have organised it in a series of hypothetical questions and answers grouped under subject headings.

We trust that in this way the reader patient enough to reach the end of the article will acquire the wherewithal for making an appropriate decision. We guarantee: solar energy offers more than sunburn.

So here is our (and your) barrier cream:

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