OSLO: Otovo AS has launched its operations in Italy, which becomes the company’s 6th European market, a news release said.
The residential solar market in Italy is one of the most attractive in Europe and expected to be worth more than 1,200 million euros annually by 2025. Otovo expects the Italian unit to contribute more than 100 million euros in revenues annually by 2025.
During pre-launch preparations, the Italian Otovo unit has already signed more than 20 customers and done two installations. At launch, Otovo is covering more than 90% of the Italian population. Otovo expects the Italian unit to contribute more than 100 million euros in revenues annually by 2025.
The Italy business unit will be run by Fabio Stefanini. In the first quarter of 2021 Stefanini joined Otovo from Uber, where he has led the new mobility vertical in Italy since its debut and before that, he led Amazon’s online grocery vertical from inception.
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Stefanini holds an MBA from SDA Bocconi and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, in addition to a degree in management engineering from the University of Bologna.
“The Italian market is one of the most attractive residential solar markets in Europe, and we are positive about the opportunity to quickly gain a leading position, led by Fabio and our very talented team”, says Andreas Thorsheim, Otovo’s CEO.
The Italian market is among the top 5 largest residential solar markets in Europe, with an estimated market size of more than 600 million euros in 2020 (30x the Norwegian market size). Further, the market is expected to more than double to 1,200 million euros annually by 2025.
The residential solar market in Italy is driven by very favorable regulatory schemes. There exists both a 50% tax deduction of the solar or battery investment and a reduced VAT rate. Also, there is an attractive net metering system, compensating homeowners for feeding electricity into the grid.
Otovo also seeks to tap into the large market for residential batteries. This is expected to drive increased project profitability and will be the first of Otovo’s markets to sell batteries.
“More than 40% of all Italian solar systems are sold in combination with batteries. What has happened to the cost of batteries over the past few years is amazing, and that drives demand. We want to ride the wave of interest that we now see building up in Italy”, says Stefanini.
Otovo is a marketplace that organizes hundreds of local, high-quality, and qualified energy installers. The company uses its proprietary technology to analyze the potential of any home and finds the best price and installer for customers based on an automatic bidding process between available installers.