Italy: Renewables meet 44.3% of power demand in June

Rome; Renewable power generation was responsible for covering 44.3% of the national electricity demand in Italy in June, with hydropower having the largest contribution, new statistics show.

The country’s total power demand declined by 9.2% to 25.4 billion kWh and production slipped by 7.9% to 22.3 billion kWh, according to the latest data released by transmission system operator (TSO) Terna SpA.

Generation from renewables totalled 11.3 billion kWh with hydropower plants accounting for 43.5% of it. Solar parks were responsible for 31.4% of the generation from renewables while biomass, wind and geothermal facilities accounted for 12.1%, 9.2% and 3.8%, respectively.

At the end of June, Italy had 39.5 GW of installed wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) parks. The country commissioned almost 2.5 GW of renewables capacity in the first six months of the year, up 1.4 GW from the year-ago period as monthly installations reached close to 500 MW in June 2023.

The first six months of 2023 marked a 5.3% year-on-year drop in overall electricity consumption in the country, coming at 150.5 billion kWh. In June, Italy managed to produce most of its electricity locally, sourcing 87.3% from its power domestically, and 12.7% was from electricity exchanged with other countries.