Italy reached 26,106 MW of cumulative installed PV capacity at the end of December, spread across 1,221,045 installations, according to new statistics from Italia Solare.

In the first quarter of the year, the country deployed 1,058 MW of new PV capacity, which compares to 377 in the same period of 2022.

The largest portion of this capacity is represented by PV systems below 20 kW in size, accounting for 647 MW. The second-largest segment is installations with outputs ranging from 20 kW to 200 kW, with a share of 289 MW, followed by solar plants above 1 MW, which account for 123 MW.

The regions with the largest share of total new capacity additions are Lombardia with 190 MW, Veneto with 169 MW, Emilia Romagna with 118 MW, and Piedmont with 106 MW.

“For 2023, a doubling from this year is very likely, and for 2024 a further doubling, so we are talking about 2 GW, 4 GW, and 8 GW,” Italia Solare President Paolo Rocco Viscontini told pv magazine at the recent Italia Solare Forum in Rome. In 2022, Italy deployed 2.48 GW of installed solar power.

The Italian government is currently supporting large-scale solar via an auction system and rooftop solar through a net metering program and several fiscal incentives.