Italy adds 3.34 GW of new solar in H1

Rome: Italy installed around 3.34 GW of new PV capacity in the first six months of 2024, according to a new report by Italian PV association Italia Solare.

In the same period of 2023, the country deployed around 2.3 GW of solar. In full-year 2023, total new PV capacity reached 5.23 GW, which compares to 2.48 GW in 2022 and 0.94 GW in 2021.

The country’s cumulative PV capacity reached 33.62 GW at the end of June.

Newly installed capacity in the first half includes 29% (985 MW) from residential PV systems under 20 kW and 35% (1,155 MW) from commercial and industrial (C&I) systems between 20 kW and 200 kW. The remaining 36% (1,201 MW) comes from utility-scale plants exceeding 1 MW.

The increase was driven by the connections of 17 plants with a power greater than 10 MW, for a total of 540 MW. These facilities were installed in Lombardy (18 MW), Lazio (215 MW), Friuli-Venezia Giulia (24 MW), Sicily (65 MW), Sardinia (177 MW) and Puglia (38 MW).

“The data demonstrate how the utility-scale sector is finally growing and the authorizations granted are starting to translate into plants built and connected to the grid”, said Paolo Rocco Viscontini, president of Italia Solare, underlining however that the process is always extremely long.

There was strong growth in connections of plants between 1 MW and 10 MW, with capacity increasing by 122%, from 297 MW in the first half of 2023 to 661 MW in the first six months of 2024. Six regions – Lombardy, Lazio, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, and Sardinia – accounted for 63% of the newly installed capacity this year.

Six regions have installed 63% of newly installed capacity for this year: Lombardy (554 MW), Lazio (426 MW), Veneto (329 MW), Emilia-Romagna (304 MW), Piedmont (257 MW) and Sardinia (242 MW).

“In these regions, during the first six months of 2024, 2.11 GW were connected, of which: 24% (515 MW) is attributable to the residential sector, 34% (717 MW) is attributable to the C&I sector and 42% (880 MW) is related to the utility-scale sector,” said the association.