Italy installed 60 MW of solar in first two months of 2018

Around 60% of the newly installed capacity comes from residential installations, a sign that the market is still being driven by the rooftop business, despite new developments in the large-scale and private PPA segments.

March 26, 2018 Emiliano Bellini

A residential PV system in Italy.

Image: Flickr/Puntin 1969

Italy added around 60.1 MW of new PV installations in the first two months of this year, up 17% from 51 MW in the same period a year earlier, according to provisional numbers released by the Italian renewable energy association, Anie Rinnovabili, which are based on data provided by the country’s grid operator, Terna.

In February alone, new additions totaled 27.9 MW, up 8% from the same month of 2017.

Residential PV systems not exceeding 20 kW represent around 60% of this year’s newly installed capacity, with PV installations ranging from 4.5 kW to 6 kW accounting for the largest share, at 11.9 MW; followed by generators up to 3 kW (7.9 MW); solar systems with a capacity range of 10 kW to 20 kW (7.5 MW); installations ranging in size from 3 kW to 4.5 kW (6.7 MW); and systems with a capacity between 6 kW and 10 kW (2.2 MW).

As for the commercial and industrial segments, the category with the largest share is that of PV systems with a power range of 20 kW to 100 kW, which reached a combined capacity of 10.9 MW. In the large-scale segment, which includes all projects exceeding 1 MW, the newly installed power for the first two months of this year was just 2.5 MW.

The regions with the largest volume of installed capacity are once again Lombardia, Emilia Romagna and Veneto with around 10.9 MW, 9.0 MW and 8.8 MW, respectively.

These figures confirm that the average growth trend of the Italian solar market – around 30 MW per month – remained almost unchanged over the past three years.

Last year’s record performance, which saw around 409 MW installed, included the usual 30 MW per month, plus another 66 MW of “grid-parity” projects that were connected to the grid in central Italy.

If no more projects of this kind are finalized in Italy this year, it will be very likely that growth in 2018 will range between 300 MW and 360 MW, as in previous years, where the market was mainly driven by the Italian regulation for self-consumption, the so-called SEU framework, which has been key to Italy’s solar development since the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme, Conto Energía, was closed.

Several large-scale solar projects, however, have recently been planned or announced in the country, while the first corporate PPA for “grid-parity” was announced by French energy group Engie in February.

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