Salvatore Guastella *, Fabrizio Paletta , Anna De Lillo**, Saverio Li Causi** Salvatore Castello** 23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition Valencia, 1-5 Settembre 2008 * CESI RICERCA ** ENEA C.R. Casaccia This paper analyzes the status and perspectives of the photovoltaic technology in Italy analyzing the market, the most significant sectors of PV power application, the promoting initiatives, the industry status as well as the research and development activities. Photovoltaic is becoming in Italy more and more important. Feed-in tariffs, introduced with the last decree on February 2007, seem to be adequate. Large obstacles for the growing market are smoothed and Italian PV firms are planning to extend their capacities. In this contest, during the year 2007 the total power of the photovoltaic systems that have been installed in Italy sums to about 70 MWp. Then, a cumulative installed power of about 120 MWp is installed in Italy at the end of 2007, thus resulting in an very consistent annual increase: around 140% !. Moreover, in Italy costs & prices are slowly going down, whereas production of PV cells and modules is quickly growing. In 2007, the expenditure on PV research and demonstration have been about 5 M
, while the ones for market stimulation have been around 20 M
.