Thanks to a Feed-in Tariff program it began in 2007 that resulted in a sevenfold jump in installs, individual Italians are now installing solar on buildings at the astounding rate of 250 MW, or the size of a typical power station, every two months, in a seeming vindication of a policy that Al Gore recommended to congress in 2007, an “electranet” which would pay individuals for power supplied to the grid from their roofs.

Italy is now building more solar power every month than California is in a year, Paul Gipe is reporting at Renewable Energy World. Since beginning the Feed-in Tariff, each year Italy has installed twice as much solar power as the entire USA has, and for 2010, with 1,500 MW – will have installed three times as much as the entire US with our 480 MW.

The vast majority of these Italian solar installations are on rooftops. (more…)