For the past two months, solar industry analysts have been glued to an Italian soap opera as the government repeatedly flip-flopped on its Feed-In Tariff (FiT) policy, a controversial tool that European governments have used to promote the rapid adoption of renewable energy through direct incentives. Conflicting reports made it very difficult to determine what was happening in Italy. The details are still not entirely clear, but the outcome will involve new limits and has significantly disrupted the solar market and prices. The response to such extreme uncertainty has been that Italian solar module orders and project construction have ground to a complete halt. The only solace for manufacturers watching this unfold was the comfort that came from knowing Germany,