Italy’s energy management agency Gestore dei Servizi Energetici (GSE) has awarded 327.7MW of solar PV projects in the 13th auction for renewable energy.
GSE announced that a total of 79 solar and wind projects, with a combined capacity of 1,001MW, were allocated to Group A which consisted of projects with a capacity of more than 1MW. Of these projects, 63 projects were solar with a combined capacity of 327.7MW.
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A total of 1,627MW was offered in the auction, but the total capacity was not fully subscribed. In this auction, only 1,041MW of capacity was assigned to wind, solar PV and hydro.
Since the beginning of the tender programme, GSE has allocated 7.3GW of renewable capacity, equivalent to more than 91% of the 8GW of available power announced by the Italian government in 2019.
Moreover, the next auction will start in the next few days and will allocate the remaining available capacity.
Renewables have been playing a key role in Italy’s energy transition. The Italian energy sector generated record-breaking volumes of both solar PV and wind power in 2023, producing 30.6TWh and 23.4TWh of electricity respectively, according to Italian transmission grid operator Terna.
Terna reported that in 2023, the Italian solar sector generated 10.6% more electricity than in the previous year, alongside growth in the wind sector of 15.1%. This contrasts with a decline in fossil fuel generation in Italy, which saw energy produced from thermoelectric sources fall by 17.4% year-on-year and coal-fired electricity production collapse by 41.7%.
Italy also targeted to install 4GW of new solar capacity in 2023, the highest in a 12-month period for over a decade, as solar continues to account for more of the country’s energy mix.