Andreas Maas:

As early as 15 years ago (in 1991), Germany’s federal state of Baden-Württemberg introduced the “1,000 Roofs Programme for Photovoltaic Systems”, which provided financial support for the installation of such systems. Since we were living there at the time, I wanted to participate in this programme. However, the roof of our house at that time was not suitable due to its deviation from the ideal southern orientation, and therefore my application was not approved.
In 1999, we moved to South Tyrol, and I brought my dream of solar electricity with me. For a long time, turning this dream into reality remained a financial challenge, until a new Italian law on renewable energies was introduced in July 2005.
Similar to the German programme, this law helped solve the financial obstacle by guaranteeing remuneration for solar electricity at a rate of €0.445 per kWh over a period of 20 years.

Now, after more than 15 years, I was finally able to turn my long-held dream into reality with the help of a loan from Ethical Banking, a division of Raiffeisenkasse Bozen.
We are a family of six and would like to express our gratitude to everyone who made their savings available for this project.
It is a truly rewarding feeling to receive our annual electricity needs from the sun: “The sun does not send us a bill,” says journalist and television presenter Franz Alt.
The heat for our home, the hot water produced by our solar collectors, and the rainwater collected in the storage tank beneath the garage are also gifts from nature.
With windows featuring a U-value of 0.9 and thermal insulation ranging from 14 to 22 cm, we capture the sun’s warmth during winter and keep the cold outside.
But there is still much more that could be done in this area… and we certainly have no shortage of ideas and dreams for the future.
Roof pitch: 10°
Roof orientation: 60° east of south
The system consists of 18 modules, each with an output of 185 watts (Shell 185-C), installed in two strings.
Inverter: SolarMax 4200 C.
The system was designed by Per. Ind. Egon Wenter, Bolzano, and installed by Elektroanlagen Gottfried Platter, Klobenstein/Ritten.