What are the main dynamics for revamping and repowering of medium and large ground-mounted and rooftop PV plants today?
In Italy, repowering and revamping of PV plants are reaching increasingly large volumes, and there are more than 18.5 GW of PV plants that will be at least 10 years old in 2024. Of these, more than 22%, or more than 4 GW, have a capacity of at least 1 MW. For the most part, these are installations owned by professional operators and investors whose aim is to maximize the production and remuneration of power.
These entities account for the largest share of revamping, i.e., upgrades with the same power output or minimal deviations from the original nameplate data, or repowering, true upgrades of existing plants.
There are also many commercial and industrial rooftop plants in self-consumption, the owners of these types of plants are usually less careful than investment funds to maximize production at all times, but even among them there are those who decide to modernize or upgrade their plant.
The choice between repowering and revamping is mostly a matter of time, of how long the owner is willing to wait to connect more input power if the grid is not immediately capable of absorbing it. Some manufacturers are willing to wait as long as two years to get the connection solutions needed to repower a ground system. Others prefer to just revamp for the same power and finish the work in a much shorter time by taking advantage of existing connection points. However, one solution does not necessarily exclude the other.
