It must be that the Mediterranean sun is brighter.

The marinara sauca is sassier.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, the government subsidies are much richer.

My email in-basket today included a release from our friends at the Solar Electric Power Association that reports on their recent tour of Italian solar projects. I accompanied a group of American utility leaders on a similar SEPA fact-finding mission in Japan last year.

Read what the execs had to say about Japan: http://www.energybiz.com/magazine/article/168707/checking-it-out

And our coverage of the solar story in Japan: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/energycentral/energybiz_20101112/index.php?startid=14

Back to Italy.

The SEPA release issues a stark comparison:

 "Despite stagnant economic growth over the last decade, Italy’s cumulative photovoltaic installations have grown exponentially. Since 2009, Italy has integrated nearly 7,000 megawatts of new solar capacity to its national grid. By comparison, the U.S. power system — which as a whole is 15 times larger than Italy’s — has achieved 1,400 megawatts of new solar integration in that time period."

SEPA will be discussing the background and implications of all this in a webcast Thursday, July 14, at 2 p.m. EDT.

The sun may be shining on early Italian solar successes - but a dark fiscal crisis spreading over Europe could cloud prospects for continued growth in renewables on the continent.

Energy policy. Government deficits. Climate concerns. The complexity of the interaction of all these matters is becoming truly daunting.