Solar PV meets 9.9% of Italian electrical demand in July 2013

Italian grid operator Terna SpA (Rome) has released statistics on the nation's electricity production and demand in July 2013, finding that solar photovoltaics (PV) produced 2.96 TWh during the month, meeting 9.9% of Italian demand.

This represents a slight increase in production but a decrease in the portion of demand met from June 2010, when PV met 10.5% of demand. It is also a 22% increase in raw production from July 2012.

Italy leads the transition to PV

Italy had the highest percentage of electricity production from PV of any large nation in 2012 at 5.7%, even higher than Germany. This has increased to 7.3% in the first seven months of 2013.

Italy's PV market has declined precipitously since the closing of its feed-in tariff. It is unknown how many PV plants qualified for the feed-in tariff but have not yet been connected to the grid, and growth in PV production is likely to taper off following commissioning of the final plants.

Conventional power production falls

When hydroelectric power, geothermal and wind power are added, renewable energy met 33% of Italian electricity demand in July, and 32% of over the first seven months of 2013.

The rise in renewable production coincides with a fall in conventional (“thermal”) generation from fossil fuels and nuclear power, which met 64% of demand in the first seven months of 2012, but only 56% in the first seven months of 2013.

Italy still imports a large amount of its electricity, at 13% of demand over the first seven months of 2013, though this has also declined very slightly.