Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

Italy: PV generation rose 11% in February

While overall electricity consumption fell 8.1% in Italy last month, photovoltaic power generation increased by 11.2%.

Cumulative photovoltaic capacity in Italy is said to total 16.5 GW.

Gestamp Solar

Italy’s total electricity consumption in February fell by 8.1% compared to the same period last year, equaling 25.7 billion kWh, according to the latest figures by Italian transmission grid operator, Terna. 83.2% of demand was met with national resources, while the remaining 16.8% was imported.

While net national production – 21.6 billion kWh – fell 14.7% year-on-year, renewable energy production increased, with wind power growing 19.1% and photovoltaic power 11.2%.

Overall, says Terna, electricity demand fell by 5% in January and February 2013, compared to the first two months of 2012. Last year, photovoltaics accounted for 5.6% of Italy’s total electricity demand.

According to the latest figures from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, with 3.3 GW, Italy went from being the top photovoltaic market in 2011 in terms of newly installed capacity, to the third biggest, behind Germany and China.

Italian Energy Agency, GSE’s latest figures show cumulative capacity to be 16.5 GW, spread across 494,567 photovoltaic systems. Under Italy’s five feed-in tariff schemes, €6.5 billion has been paid out to photovoltaic projects. When the total reaches €6.7 billion, tariffs will no longer be paid.