The Department of Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development of Lombardy –Italy's wealthiest, most dynamic region – has allocated another €20 million in rebates to promote the use of storage systems coupled with residential and commercial PV arrays. The new funds add to the €20 million the regional government had devoted to the program in October 2020.

“The initial allocation of €20 million allowed the funding of 466 applications out of 921 admitted,” the regional government said in a statement. “Thanks to the new funds, all the remaining 455 applications remaining in the ranking will be financed.”

The scheme is open to two different kind of projects – installations of PV systems linked to storage systems, and the deployment of standalone storage systems linked to existing solar arrays. For the first project category, the rebates will cover 50% of purchase and installation costs. This percentage could go up to 90% for projects developed by small municipalities.

The second category of rebates will cover 100% of project costs, with “50% of the approved rebate to be paid in 2021,” the regional authorities said. The second tranche, equal to 30% of the total, will be paid in 2022. “The remaining sum will be paid in 2022, once the project is completed.”

This scheme and other smaller schemes implemented by the region in previous years have become the main growth driver for the residential storage segment in Italy. According to recent figures from local renewables association ANIE Rinnovabili, the country had 43,784 storage systems linked to renewable energy power generators at the end of March. These storage systems have a combined capacity of 212.1 MW and a maximum storage capacity of 333.0 MWh.

According to these figures, just four of the batteries are not connected to a solar power generator and most of the devices – 42,274 for a total capacity of 206.5 MW/319.1 MWh – are based on lithium-ion technologies, with the remaining share being represented by lead batteries and other unspecified technologies.