Solar Photovoltaic Investment Evaluation In Italy And China

The main contribution of this paper is the analysis of investments in the context of sustainable energy, namely the solar energy. It’s a long time since CO2emissions started to create problems, and many environmental symptoms, such as global warming and natural disasters, indicate that it is time to change. It is our duty to allow future generations to live the same standard as we do nowadays. This issue is related to economical decisions, since nuclear power is for instance cheaper and fuel more effective, most people’s lifestyle today is unsustainable, and they are more interested in material costs, than in actual "living costs" that affect our environment and therefore also us.This paper aims to give insights about the most relevant aspects that need to be considered when selecting a type of energy. A sustainable analysis as well as profitability indexes is given. The solar pv’s performances and sustainability, in the Chinese and Italian market have been analyzed. The combination of both components permits a successful investment analysis.The purpose of this dissertation is to propose investment solutions for private persons as well as for companies, in China and Italy. In order to so, I firstly conducted and analyze the Chinese and Italian solar market, including the evaluation of production and installation options. To evaluate these aspects I have started considering the solar evolution from its origins totoday. Consequently, I evaluated the concept of efficiency and effectiveness that have been achieved in the last few years by solar energy. One of the main roles in my paper has been the investment evaluation, which resulted to be advantageous for both countries, but the big difference stands in the use of incentives, thatresulted to be competitive, and are not constantly adopted yet in China. Anyway,during the decision making for an investment choice we can find different opportunities with a shorter lifecycle.The empirical research of this paper, aims for a correct vision and verification of previous studies that have been done in this purpose. I have conducted a quantitative research, including production costs, categorization of solar efficiency, profitability issues and sustainability aspects. After having gotten the results, an evaluation with subsequent interpretation has been made. Analyzing and comparing my results to other findings, new and interesting insights about solar performances in sustainability and financial aspects can be drawn. For instance, it is not common to consider the environmental impacts that current energies have. The ERoEI index is the closest to my issue, it’s the energy return on energy invested, but still it doesn’t count all the external costs, that are monetarily and energetic costs paid by the society and not from the producers. If we start to consider factors such as pollution costs, global warming, petrol waste about5.438.358tons of liquid, we would have a different approach concerning energy choice, because the actual sources will result less competitive.These findings allowed me to develop valid investment strategies and give useful recommendations for companies and individuals that wish to invest in the solar Photovoltaic sector.