The Italian solar photovoltaic market has seen demand grow in the first ten months of this year according to a report by the witness of Terna SpA. 

Despite the decrease in subsidies by the Italian government, solar power and other renewable resources have seen a sharp increase.

This year alone there has been a growth of 18.6% of PV energy mixes including;  26.3% hydroelectric, 20% wind power, 0.7% geothermal energy, while the thermoelectric sector literally collapsed, losing 13.9%, which means 25000 GWh  (gigawatt hours).

This continued growth in solar power comes at a time when Italy and other European countries are cutting, or even removing their subsidies for solar technology.


By comparison, the UK continues to lag behind from renewable sources, and a recent British Government report talked about a modest target of 35% by 2020.

In the month to October, the Italian electricity system seen a 26.4 billion Kwh, namely 26.4 Twh (terawatt hours) compared to the same month last year, a decrease of 2.8%. 47% of the requests came from North Italy, 29% from the centre, and 24% from the South.

The report from the “Rapporto mensile sul sistema electtrico’’ said energy consumptions drop mainly in Northern Italy by 3.2%, while Central and Southern Italy recorded a 2.3% drop.

Italian national production has satisfied 83.1% of total energy needs with latest statistics suggesting PV is in third place delivering energy needs.

Meanwhile, latest research from PVcompare.net reveals that European companies are still world leaders in developing and installing photovoltaic technology. But will face stiffer competition from a retrenched China market on the world stage.