Italy's power storage installations in the first quarter of 2023 were six times higher than the same period last year owing to the Italian government's recently repealed credit schemes, Italian renewables association Anie Rinnovabili reported.
Total installations of battery energy storage systems (BESS) during January-March amounted to 741MW, representing a 502pc increase from just 123MW added during the same period last year, according to the association.
About 80,199 units were added in the first quarter for a combined storage capacity of 1.1GWh, rising from just 20,832 across the same quarter last year for an accumulated 264MWh. A monthly average of 27,000 battery storage units were added across January-March, up by 107pc from about 13,000 added every month last year.
The country's total BESS capacity reached 2.3GW/3.9GWh as of the end of March, rising from 527MW/997MWh a year earlier and including grid operator Terna's additional BESS units totalling 60MW/250MWh.
The association attributed the steep increase to the credit schemes and tax breaks introduced by the government of former prime minister Mario Draghi.
But the current government of prime minister Giorgia Meloni in February announced that credit concessions for small-scale energy installations such as solar panels and batteries would cease owing to their negative impact on the public debt. This may slow the roll-out of new BESS systems and block existing investments, Anie said.
About 99pc of Italian battery storage capacity is "distributed", meaning that units are dispersed throughout the distribution network of households and businesses. About 92pc of the country's storage units have a capacity of less than 20kWh, of which 33pc falls between the 5-10kWh range and 36pc between 10-15kWh.
Italy's current distributed storage capacity stands at 58pc of a target 4GW required under its national climate and energy plan (PNIEC) by 2030. By contrast, centralised storage capacity stands at a mere 25MW, less than 1pc of a target 3GW by 2030.
The northern region of Lombardy remains the region with the highest number of installed BESS at 448MW/753MWh, followed by Veneto for 330MW/608MWh and Emilia-Romagna for 240MW/379MWh.
