Italy's photovoltaic installation is strong! Large power stations "exploded" by 373%

In the first quarter of 2024, Italy's installed PV capacity exceeded 1.7GW, a significant increase compared to the same period in 2023.

Among them, large-scale ground-mounted power stations saw the largest increase in installed capacity, up more than 373% from the first quarter of 2023. New large-scale ground-mounted power station PV installed capacity in the first three months of this year was 579MW, compared with 123MW in the same period of 2023.

This growth was driven by eight new projects, each of which was larger than 10MW, which came online during this period, adding 281MW of capacity.

Italia Solare, the Italian solar industry association, said that since October 2023, 622MW of these projects above 10MW have been connected to the grid, and grid connection has occurred every month.

In addition, growth in the residential sector also remained strong, with an installed capacity of 547MW, up 4% from 525MW in the fourth quarter of 2023. However, the government's "super bonus" incentive for residential power generation systems has ended, which is expected to reduce the adoption of new systems in the long run.

The commercial and industrial sector also grew significantly, more than doubling from 289MW in the first quarter of 2023 to 595MW in the first quarter of 2024.

Italia Solare said this was mainly due to the increase in the national single price (PUN) in the second half of 2023 and the general increase in energy costs, which boosted installations in the first quarter of 2024 due to the time required for commissioning, construction and grid connection that began last year.

The impressive first quarter data follows a similarly strong 2023 in Italy, which saw the highest new installations of large-scale solar in more than a decade. More than 5.3GW of new capacity was installed last year, compared to 2.4GW in 2022. Italy, photovoltaics are on the rise again!