Photovoltaics covered 2.8% of Italian energy demand in 2011

For the second consecutive year after autumn 2009, preliminary estimates of electricity demand in Italy last year shows a 0.6% growth on 2010. The total energy demand in 2011 amounted to 332.3 billion kWh. PV accounted for 2.8% out of 64.7% of domestic production. However, the net national production (289.2 billion kWh) is a decrease of 0.5% compared to 2010.

A decrease in energy consumption, by 3.3% in December, has been blamed on a mild winter. December generated 84.7% domestic and the remainder 15.3% was exported. In detail, the net national production (23.4 billion kWh) has down by 11.3% over the same month of 2010, increasing the sources of wind power production (+29.8%) and photovoltaic (+458.7%), down hydroelectric sources (-31.9) and thermoelectric power (-11.8%), geothermal energy production unchanged (0.0%). At the territorial level, the change in December 2011 was negative everywhere and few alterations: -5.6% in the North, Central and -4.2% to -4.5% in the South.