A few days after the referendum on the drilling rigs and in the midst of the debate on the country's energy choices, Italy takes home a record: it is the Country in the world that uses the most solar energy in proportion to its total electricity consumption. To be precise, 8% of national demand is covered by photovoltaics, and in this special ranking we are ahead of Greece (7,4%) and Germany (7,1%).
This was revealed by a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental organization of the OECD which brings together 29 of the most industrialized countries in the world. The report “Snapshots of Global PV Markets” explains that the world's photovoltaic production capacity in 2015 grew by 50 GW (gigawatts), reaching at least 227 GW. The greatest growth has been in China, with 15,3 gigawatts more in 2015, followed by Japan (11 GW), USA (7 GW), EU (7 GW) and India (2 GW). The Asia-Pacific region alone accounts for 59% of the global solar energy market.
After Italy, Greece and Germany, the countries that use photovoltaics the most are Belgium and Japan (around 4%), then Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Australia (around 3,5%). There China despite the boom it is only 21/y, with only 1% of its needs covered by the sun. Worse still is the USA, in 25th place with less than 1%.
These data confirm a prominent position of our country in the field of clean energy. Renewables have touched a electricity production peak in 2014 (43% of total national production), and Italy consolidates its historic leadership in the field of geothermal energy. On the eve of referendum on drilling, the government has announced that it intends to feed 50% of electricity needs with renewables.
