Italy's latest tender: 1.1GW of photovoltaic power plants won; cells, modules, etc. must not be made in China.

Italy has secured contracts for a total of 1.1 GW of photovoltaic (PV) projects in its non-price-based FER-X tender under its Net Zero Industry Act.

A total of 88 projects were awarded, nearly half of the 157 projects (total installed capacity of 1.85 GW) shortlisted in November.

Organized by the Italian energy management agency, this tender will award contracts to projects using non-Chinese components. This aligns with the EU's Net Zero Industry Act's "non-price standard" approach, which aims to diversify the solar PV supply chain and reduce reliance on China.

The tender requires participating projects to procure at least four key product categories—solar cells, modules, and inverters—from non-Chinese manufacturers. The average price in this tender was €66.378/MWh, significantly higher than the average price in a recent FER-X tender that did not restrict the use of Chinese solar panels.

The price difference between the two tenders also stems from restrictions on the supply of non-Chinese products, a requirement that could increase the costs of winning projects. The highest electricity price in this Net Zero Industrial Act tender reached €73/MWh.

Patrizio Donati, co-founder and managing director of independent power producer Terrawatt, recently wrote an article in the complexities of this new tender and the challenges of participating in tenders requiring the procurement of non-Chinese solar products.

Half of the winning capacity is located in Sicily.

In terms of the number of projects, Sicily had the most winning bids, with 22 out of 88 projects. Emilia Romagna and Piedmont with 11 and 10 projects respectively.

In terms of capacity, the rankings changed slightly. Sicily remains the region with the largest awarded capacity, with 22 projects totaling 583MW, accounting for more than half of the 1.1GW total solar PV capacity tendered. Lazio ranked second with 8 projects totaling 184MW, and Apulia in southern Italy ranked third with 7 projects totaling 69MW.

The companies that won bids in this Net Zero Industrial Act tender included solar developers and independent power producers such as X-Elio, Juwi, ContourGlobal, Ellomy Solar, FRV, R.Power, Enel, and Enel Green Power. As shown in the list below, Chinese photovoltaic manufacturer Trina Solar also won several projects.

Furthermore, the vast majority of the winning projects (71 out of 88) have a capacity of 10MW or less, with only 17 projects exceeding 10MW. Nevertheless, large-scale projects accounted for 756MW of the total winning bids, with the largest project, at 144MW, coming from investment platform Alta Capital.