Italy added 204 MW of PV in first five months of 2017

The Italian solar market has grown by 19% in the first five months of this year with around 204 MW of newly installed capacity, according to provisional numbers released by the Italian renewable energy association Anie Rinnovabili, which relies on data provided by the country’s grid operator Terna.

This result represents a 19% increase compared to 171 MW in the first five months of 2016. This year’s growth is mainly driven by the connection to the grid of five “grid-parity” PV plants with a combined capacity of 63 MW, which were completed in Montalto di Castro, Viterbo, Central Italy in May.

It is the first time in several years that large-scale solar facilities have been brought online in such extent in the country, after the Italian government closed the fifth and final incentive program Conto Energia for solar energy in the summer of 2013. This gives the category for PV plants over 1 MW the largest share in this year’s ranking with around 65.3 MW of newly installed power, followed by PV systems ranging in size from 20 kW to 100 kW (25.1 MW), PV systems with a capacity between 4.5 kW and 6 kW (24.8 MW), solar installations with a power of 10 kW to 20 KW (20.8 MW) and solar power generators with a capacity between 200 kW and 500 kW (19.3 MW).

In May alone, the new PV capacity was 95.8 MW, up 91% from the same month a year earlier, and up considerably from 24.5 MW in April 2017.

The region with the largest share so far this year is Lazio, where the above-mentioned large-scale PV plants are located, with 72.9 MW, followed by Lombardia (21.6 MW), Veneto (21.0 MW) and Emilia Romagna (15.5 MW).

Power production from PV source grew 13.3% from 8,705 GWh in the first five months of 2016 to 9,864 GWh in the same period of this year.

According to the latest official statistic released by Terna, Italy had approximately 18.9 GW of installed PV capacity at the end of 2015. Taking into account last year’s newly installed PV capacity, which was around 369 MW, and new additions for the first five months of 2017, the country should have reached approximately 19.4 GW of installed solar capacity at the end of May.