According to provisional data released by the Italian transmission grid operator TERNA, solar energy provided 5.6% of Italy’s electricity demand in 2012. In relative terms, this makes Italy the most solar-powered industrialized nation of the world, even surpassing Germanys 4.8% share of solar in the electricity supply.
In absolute terms, Italian solar produced a total of 18.3 TWh of energy last year, an increase of an incredible 72% compared to 2011.
Though official numbers are not yet available, preliminary numbers suggest that the installed solar capacity in Italy rose to approximately 17 GW spread over roughly 470,000 systems in 2012.
This means that the share of solar in the electricity supply is already set to rise to 6-7% in 2013 due to the already installed capacity.
This development reinforces Italy’s astonishing record of fast and meaningful deployment of photovoltaic systems using feed-in tariffs as a policy incentive.
