Italy is on track for its best year for solar PV development in a decade, thanks to a surge in installations in the first half of 2022, according to the latest figures from industry association Italia Solare.
From January to June, Italy added 1,012MW of photovoltaic power generation, 149% higher than the 406MW in the same period last year.
Italia Solare said that in 2011, Italy's installed photovoltaic capacity was 9,461MW, a record. While 2011 is still a long way off, trends are improving compared to last year.
In fact, association figures show that since 2013, Italy has never developed more than 1GW of solar capacity in a single year.
Solar power in Italy has repeatedly failed technology-neutral tenders in the country, while a licensing regime has also prevented power purchase agreements from taking off, according to a report published last year by industry association SolarPower Europe.
Data from Italia Solare shows that Italy has developed a total of 23,577MW of solar photovoltaics, including 12,921MW of industrial and commercial systems, 5,486MW of household projects and 5,170MW of large-scale ground photovoltaic projects.
The association said the northern region of Italy had the most PV installations installed. Despite the high levels of solar radiation in central and southern Italy, efforts are being made to develop new systems in these regions.
The Italian government last week launched a 1.5 billion euro ($1.5 billion) plan to incentivize the installation of agricultural photovoltaics.
