Renewable energy in Italy

Renewable Energy in Italy
Renewable Energy (RE)
RE as % of Gross Final energy consumption	17.1% (2014)
Target for above	17.0% (2020)
Renewable Electricity
Percentage of electricity generated by RE	(est) 43.1% (2014)
RE generated / Total electricity generation	120,677 / 279,829 GWh (2014)
Record % RE covered electricity consumption	100% (June16th 2013)
Installed capacity (2015)[1]
Wind Power	9.1 GW
Bio Energy	4.1 GW
Solar Power	18.9 GW
Hydro Power	18.5 GW
Geothermal	0.8 GW
Total	51.5 GW
Country Notes
In 2014 Italy had the world's highest solar power penetration Diverse spread of RE sources Achieved its 2020 RE targets 6 years early

Renewable energy has developed rapidly in Italy over the past decade and provided the country a means of diversifying from its historical dependency on imported fuels. Solar power accounted for around 8% of the total electric production in the country in 2014, making Italy the country with the highest contribution from solar energy in the world that year.^[2] Rapid growth in the deployment of solar, wind and bio energy in recent years lead to Italy producing over 40% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2014.

The share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption (all energy uses) had risen to 17.1% in 2014.^[3] This number has been growing steadily and today accounts for one of the principal components of national energy consumption. In 2014, 38.2% of the national electric energy consumption came from renewable sources (in 2005 this value was 15.4%), covering 16% of the total energy consumption of the country (5.3% in 2005).^[2] The corresponding figure for electricity generation was even higher as consumption figures are reduced by electricity imports (13.6% of the total in 2014).^[1] Imported electricity may also contain a high proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources but these are not accounted for in consumption figures.

All 8,047 Italian municipalities (comune) have deployed some source of renewable energy, with hydroelectric power being the leading renewable energy source in terms of production. Bio energy, wind power and geothermal power also make an important contribution to national energy demands. By 2013, renewable energy primary consumption in Italy had grown to 14.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe).

Italy has implemented generous incentive schemes to encourage the development of renewable energy production. Its largest scheme incentivised solar PV production and lead Italy from a low base of installed PV in 2010 to become the world's fourth largest country by installations by the end of 2014, ahead of the US at that time. All sources of renewable energy have grown in Italy during recent years and many continue to receive incentives. In the last decade, Italy has become one of the world's largest producers of renewable energy, ranking as the second largest producer in the European Union and the ninth in the world.