Italy connected 4.83 GW of new solar capacity in the first nine months of 2026, bringing cumulative installed capacity to 48.35 GW at the end of September. Utility-scale projects accounted for 46% of new additions, while the country’s cumulative battery storage capacity approached 20 GWh, according to new statistics from Italia Solare.
Italy installed 4.83 GW of new solar capacity in the first nine months of 2026, with 147,632 new systems connected to the grid, according to data released by industry association Italia Solare. As a way of comparison, the newly installed PV capacity for the January-September period in 2025 was 4.08 GW across 161,962 new installations
The additions brought the country’s cumulative installed PV capacity to 48.35 GW across 2,314,113 systems at the end of September 2026.
The figures are based on Italia Solare’s analysis of data from Italian grid operator Terna’s Gaudì database, covering PV and energy storage installations connected to the grid through the third quarter of 2026.
In the third quarter alone, Italy connected 1.74 GW of new PV capacity, up 5% from 1.65 GW in the second quarter and 37% from 1.27 GW in the third quarter of 2025. The number of new connections also increased, rising from 38,660 in the second quarter to 58,459 in the third quarter, a 51% quarter-on-quarter increase.
The data indicate that the Italian solar market continued to expand in the third quarter, with utility-scale projects accounting for the largest share of new capacity.
Utility-scale solar accounts for 46% of new capacity
Utility-scale projects dominated the Italian PV market in the first nine months of 2026, accounting for 2.24 GW of newly connected capacity across 473 installations, or approximately 46% of the total.
The commercial and industrial (C&I) segment followed with 1.70 GW across 11,905 installations, representing 35% of new capacity. Residential installations of up to 20 kW accounted for 897 MW across 135,254 systems, equivalent to approximately 19% of newly connected capacity.
All three market segments recorded year-on-year growth in the third quarter.
Utility-scale installations of 1 MW or more reached 858 MW, compared with 457 MW in the third quarter of 2025, representing an 88% year-on-year increase. Projects between 1 MW and 10 MW accounted for 394 MW, while installations exceeding 10 MW contributed 464 MW.
The C&I segment added 543 MW in the third quarter, up 9% from 500 MW in the corresponding period of 2025. Residential installations reached 341 MW, compared with 312 MW a year earlier, an increase of approximately 9%.
The figures show that large-scale projects remained the main driver of capacity growth, although residential and C&I installations also recorded gains.
Sicily leads solar additions, Lombardy tops installation count
Sicily recorded the largest amount of newly connected PV capacity in the first nine months of 2026, with 686 MW. Lombardy followed with 644 MW, ahead of Piedmont (498 MW), Veneto (463 MW), Emilia-Romagna (443 MW), and Lazio (432 MW).
Sicily’s leading position was largely driven by utility-scale developments. Of the 686 MW connected in the region, 476 MW came from projects exceeding 10 MW. Lombardy, by contrast, recorded particularly strong activity in the C&I segment, which accounted for 405 MW of its new capacity. Lombardy also led the country in the number of new PV connections, with 22,999 installations, followed by Veneto (18,099), Emilia-Romagna (13,405), and Sicily (11,653).
The regional figures highlight the different development patterns across Italy, with large-scale solar projects driving capacity additions in southern regions and smaller commercial and industrial systems accounting for a substantial share of installations in the north.
Battery storage capacity approaches 20 GWh
Italy’s cumulative connected battery energy storage capacity reached 19.98 GWh and 8.34 GW at the end of September 2026, according to Italia Solare.
The country had 984,829 connected storage systems at the end of the reporting period. Of the cumulative energy storage capacity, 12.55 GWh was associated with PV installations, while 7.37 GWh came from stand-alone storage systems.
In the first nine months of 2026, Italy added 1.95 GWh of storage capacity and 907 MW of storage power across 98,197 new systems. Almost all new installations by number were paired with PV systems. The segment accounted for 98,186 installations, with 1.49 GWh of capacity and 773 MW of power.
The stand-alone segment recorded just 11 new installations, but these contributed 467 MWh of capacity and 134 MW of power.
In the third quarter, PV-coupled storage installations totaled 480 MWh and 252 MW across 31,039 systems. Compared with the second quarter, connected storage capacity declined by 5%, power decreased by 10%, and the number of installations fell by 6%.
However, PV-coupled storage capacity increased by 15% compared with the third quarter of 2025, when 417 MWh was connected. The number of installations declined from 32,697 to 31,039, a decrease of approximately 5%.
In the first nine months of 2026, storage systems associated with PV installations of up to 6 kW accounted for 481 MWh of new capacity. Systems paired with PV installations between 6 kW and 20 kW contributed 596 MWh, while those associated with PV installations larger than 20 kW accounted for 409 MWh.
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