Photovoltaics, Viterbo has the highest installed capacity per capita

Italia Solare's elaboration on Terna data for the first quarter of 2024: in the province of Lazio 2.49 kW per inhabitant, Genoa last with 0.07

26 July 2024

Parco solare di Enel Green Power a Trino (Vercelli)

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Key points

In the North East, residential wins.
Rome on the podium of cities
Residential sector in decline

3' min read

Photovoltaics, Viterbo is the Italian province with the highest installed power per inhabitant: 2.49 kW. It is followed by Rovigo (1.82), Brindisi (1.37), Matera (1.36), Cuneo (1.35), Ravenna (1.24), Vercelli (1.20), Macerata (1.18), Oristano (1.16) and Foggia (1.08). At the tail end of the list are Genoa (0.07), Naples (0.10) and Rome, tied with Messina (0.17).

This is what emerges from Italia Solare's elaborations on the basis of Terna's data on the number of PV systems installed in the Italian provinces in the first quarter of 2024. The trend is one of continuous growth: on 31 March in Italy there was a 27% increase in the number of photovoltaic systems, at 1,684,316 (360,198 more than in the same period last year) for a total of 32 GW of installed power.

In the North East, residential wins

The top ten provinces with the highest number of installed systems per thousand inhabitants are almost all located in the North East: Pordenone, Udine, Trento, Padua, Treviso, Gorizia, Ravenna, Vicenza, Nuoro (the only exception) and Brescia.

Rome on the podium for number of installations

On the podium of the cities with the highest number of total systems Rome with 66,322 PV systems installed (+485% compared to the same period in 2023), Brescia with 58,531 (+325%) and Padua with 52,531 (+365%). The top ten is followed by Treviso (48,730), Turin (44,169), Vicenza (42,910), Milan (39,905), Venice (39,505 ), Bergamo (39,421) and Verona (37,706). Rome not only holds the record but is also the only city in the Centre-South to appear in the ranking. In terms of installed power, Brescia (954.19 MW), Lecce (824.69 MW) and Viterbo (793.97 MW) are in first place. This is followed by Cuneo Turin, Rome, Bari, Foggia, Milan and Padua.

Residential sector in decline

"There has not yet been a real drop in the connections of residential installations (with a capacity of less than 20 kW). The effect of the end of the 110% Superbonus, for which the end date was extended to 31 December 2023, and the freeze on the sale of credit will have an impact on the figures for grid connections of residential plants from the second and third quarters of 2024,' writes Italia Solare in a note. In particular, from the last quarter of 2023 (525 MW) to the first quarter of 2024 (547 MW), there was a 4% growth in connected power. At the provincial level, it is Rome that boasts the highest number of new residential installations: 2,999 for a total of 22.9 MW of installed power.

Commercial and industrial growth of 106%

With regard to commercial and industrial plants (with capacities between 20 and 200 kW), the province of Milan stands out, with 209 plants totalling 24.8 MW installed in Q1 2024. On a national level, the sector has seen strong growth over the past year: in Q1 2024 (595 MW), compared to the same period in 2023 (289 MW), the increase in connected power was 106%.

"Since the second half of last year, the monthly connected power has stabilised in the range between 150 and 250 MW, whereas before the energy crisis, in the period between January 2021 and June 2022, the average monthly connected power of the commercial and industrial sector was 38 MW," notes Italia Solare.

A surge in utility scale: compared to the first quarter of 2023, the connection of plants with a power output greater than 1 MW grew by 373%: 123 MW last year and 579 MW for the first three months of 2024, an increase due to the connections of 8 plants with a power output greater than 10 MW, for a total of 281 MW, installed in Lombardy (20 MW), Lazio (137 MW), Friuli-Venezia Giulia (24 MW), Sicily (40 MW), Sardinia (50 MW) and Apulia (10 MW). Among the provinces, the podium is held by Brescia, with 10 plants for a total of 18.3 MW of installed power.

What is the trend for Italian photovoltaics?

In the January-March 2024 quarter, new photovoltaic power connected in Italy amounted to 1.72 GW, a growth of 63% compared to the same period in 2023. Specifically, in March 2024 alone, 502.6 MW of photovoltaic power went into operation, and despite the 30% growth compared to March 2023, March's figure is the lowest recorded since the beginning of the year. Residential accounts for 32% (547 MW), commercial and industrial covers 35% (595 MW) while the remaining 34% (579 MW) relates to utility scale installations

"The data confirm the general growth trend of photovoltaics in Italy," comments Italia Solare president Paolo Rocco Viscontini, who makes a few predictions: "Utility scale installations are expected to grow in the coming months, but we are now starting to catch up on realisations and the general regulatory context does not reassure us. For the commercial and industrial sector we fear slowdowns due to delays caused by Transition 5.0. On the residential sector, the Superbonus effect seems inevitable.