Rome has decided to allow self-consumption communities They are expected to enable an expansion of almost 20 gigawatts by 2030 citizens will be able to share solar power from a system in future Rome has issued a decree giving the green light for renewable energy communities and shared self-consumption constellations This was announced by the photovoltaic association Italia Solare The road to approval for the shared consumption of solar power was a long one Italy was the first country in Europe to experiment with this option The first decree law number 162 dates back to 2019 but it is only now that this experimental phase has ended and the way has been cleared for energy communities With permission to establish energy communities the government in Rome wants five gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity to be built by 2027 Italia Solare assumes that the energy communities will build up at least a further twelve gigawatts of solar power capacity by 2030 This would mean that these communities would cover around 15 percent of the solar power expansion that the government has planned for the next six years Did you miss that? Italian government suspends tax penalty for solar systems the energy communities increase the awareness of photovoltaics and could thus encourage even more citizens to participate This possibility would also increase the acceptance of photovoltaics the contribution of energy communities to the 2030 targets could be much greater than the figures suggest," emphasize the industry representatives Also interesting: Call for a democratic, resilient, and affordable energy future They hope that the text of the decree will define all the necessary conditions so that operators can launch the numerous projects that are ready to take off and develop new projects "The approval process of the text has taken a long time Now we are confident that the remaining planned operational steps and the established timetables will be met," comments Andrea Brumgnach Vice President of Italia Solare and coordinator of the Energy Communities and Self-Consumption working group within the association With the subscription to this newsletter, I agree to be informed about interesting publishing and online offers of Alfons W. 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A podcast for investors on the opportunities and risks of the solar market The pv Europe editorial team offers their own analysis and discusses current topics with experts The addition of solar capacity in Italy progressed well in the first half of the year While private rooftop systems were the main market driver in the first three months installations of commercial systems have caught up installers in Italy added more than 2.3 gigawatts of new photovoltaic capacity This is an increase of 129 per cent compared to the same period last year This is reported by the industry association Italia Solare based on connection data from Terna The company operates about 90 per cent of the grid in Italy The largest part of the demand is due to homeowners about 47 per cent of the systems were built on house roofs This includes systems with an output of up to twelve kilowatts the first quarter was the decisive factor here This is because the construction figures in the second quarter fell again for the first time since May 2022 The construction of small rooftop systems fell by seven per cent in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the first quarter The remainder was largely commercial solar installations for self-consumption with an output between 20 kilowatts and one megawatt 49 per cent more commercial systems were installed than in the months of January to March See also: Nord LB finances six solar parks in northern Italy This means that the increase in the commercial sector has offset the decline in private rooftop installations He attributes the market growth mainly to the still high electricity prices "This means that companies have understood that securing energy prices is crucial and that solar protects them from the risk of price increases that could jeopardise the company's profitability," says Viscontini The addition of systems between one and 10 megawatts actually increased by 69 per cent in the second quarter compared to the first three months of this year Large-scale plants with an output of more than ten megawatts have not been built in Italy since July 2022 the first new plants in this segment went online one generator each with an output of ten megawatts was built A plant with an output of 36 megawatts was actually built in Sardinia almost 1.5 million solar plants are now connected to the grid there were a total of 1,423,986 solar generators in operation at the end of June 2023 The country cracked the one million mark in November 2021 Italia Solare expects to surpass the 1.5 million mark before the end of September Do you want to stay up to date on investments in the energy transition? Then subscribe right now to our newsletter on the topic, which will soon be sent out for the first time! In the northern Italian region - one of the sunniest in Italy - photovoltaic systems with a total output of 3.58 gigawatts are now generating electricity 3.18 gigawatts of solar power are currently installed the expansion is currently developing faster than in all other regions Also interesting: Agri-PV offers opportunities for Italy 429 megawatts were newly connected here in the first half of the year - far more than in Veneto Emilia Romagna was in third place with 235 megawatts of new installations only 118 megawatts were newly connected to the grid The pv Europe editorial team offers their own analysis and discusses current topics with experts.