Till the end of March 31, 2022, Italy's cumulative installed solar PV capacity has touched 23 GW (to be specific 22.96 GW) with 185% annual growth in Q1/2022 numbers of 433 MW, according to the local renewable energy association Anie Rinnovabili.
In a further breakdown of the numbers on monthly basis, 89 MW came up in January 2022, 103 MW in February 2022 and 241 MW in March 2022.
Q1/2022 installations went up from 152 MW installed a year back and is the highest for Q1 since 2018.
In comparison, wind power capacity additions during the reporting quarter were 11 MW (-52% YoY), followed by hydroelectric by 10 MW (+53% YoY). Altogether, the country's Q1/2022 renewable energy additions were 454 MW.
The association explains, "The trend of wind power and hydroelectricity highlights the difficulties related to obtaining the authorization titles and, in the case of hydroelectricity, also the concession titles and the need to benefit from support mechanisms, while photovoltaic is confirmed to be growing thanks to tax deductions for residential-sized systems, to the regulation of self-consumption for industrial and tertiary-sized systems and to utility scale systems in market parity."
Referring to official statistics released by the Italian transmission system operator Terna, Anie says the quarterly installations had the largest share of systems below 10 kW capacity at 37%. Systems sizes between 10 kW and 1 MW made up 35% of the total, and those with more than 1 MW capacity were 28% of the total.
Maximum increase in installed power capacity was seen in Basilicata with a 1,415% increase and Lazio with 811% improvement.
Under its National Integrated Plan for Climate and Energy (PNIEC), Italy aims to expand its cumulative installed solar power capacity to 28.55 GW by 2025 (including 250 MW solar thermal) and to 52 GW by 2030 (including 880 MW solar thermal).