Italy surpasses 2 million installations and 40 GW of installed capacity

Italy has surpassed the threshold of 2 million grid-connected photovoltaic systems, confirming that photovoltaics is a fundamental pillar of the national electricity system. This continued growth, driven by the expansion of residential, industrial, and utility systems, has generated greater awareness of the benefits of self-consumption and the need to include photovoltaics in the national energy mix to reduce utility bills.

According to data processed by ITALIA SOLARE based in Gaudì – Terna, 132,276 new photovoltaic systems were connected in the first seven months of 2025, with a total capacity of 3,354 MW. The cumulative total reached 2,011,056 million connected systems by July 30, 2025, with an installed capacity exceeding 40 GW (40,430 MW).

“We have reached a symbolic milestone: two million installations represent millions of families, businesses, and governments that have opted for a clean, reliable, and autonomous energy source. Today, photovoltaic energy is no longer a marginal option; it is an integral part of our energy infrastructure,” commented Paolo Rocco Viscontini, President of ITALIA SOLARE.

It is time to accelerate the mechanisms that support self-consumption and integration with storage, overcoming the bureaucratic and legislative slowness that still hinders the development of an energy system based on clean technologies that guarantees low and stable energy prices in our country over time.

A structural change

Over the past three years, photovoltaics has established itself as a key component of the energy mix of Italian households: between 2020 and 2024 alone, monthly residential connections increased from an average of 22 MW in 2020 to 140 MW in 2024 and peaked at 188 MW in 2023, driven by the Superbonus. In the first half of 2025, they averaged 88 MW/month, four times the monthly connected capacity before the Superbonus came into effect, indicating demand that remains strong even in the absence of extraordinary incentives. This demand is primarily driven by two factors: falling technology prices—not only for photovoltaics but also, and especially, for electrochemical storage technologies—and growing awareness of the economic viability of photovoltaics.

In the <20 kW segment, i.e., the residential sector, 106,562 systems were installed, generating a total of 686 MW. The 20 kW to 1 MW segment, which includes commercial and industrial installations, registered 804 MW installed. Large-scale systems, i.e., those over 1 MW, experienced annual growth of 12%: in the first half of 2025, 307 systems were connected, with a total capacity of 1,319 MW.

The 5 Sunniest Regions in Italy
Lombardy leads the ranking of Italian regions with the highest solar energy consumption, with 326,586 grid-connected photovoltaic systems, followed by Veneto (274,699 systems), Emilia-Romagna (198,003 systems), Lazio (141,210 systems), Sicily (136,511 systems), and Piedmont (134,729 systems). Therefore, the geographic distribution of photovoltaic installations is generally concentrated in Italy’s most populated regions, despite the fact that the market is increasingly expanded and installations are growing in all regions.

Solar energy at the heart of the electricity transition

The advancement of photovoltaic energy is gaining greater relevance thanks to the electrification of consumption: heat pumps, electric mobility, energy communities, and new industrial processes require decarbonized, accessible, and scalable energy. Photovoltaics, integrated with storage and digitalization systems, meet these needs and enable a more flexible and participatory system. Given the ambitious goals set by the European Union, which require the decarbonization of the entire housing stock on our continent by 2050, strong growth in photovoltaic energy can be expected in the coming years, as it will be the key technology in this decarbonization process.