Hydroelectricity In Italy on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Italy is the world's 14th largest producer of
Since the Italian peninsula is relatively recent geological formation, it lacks commercial coal deposits and oil, so hydroelectricity was the first source widely used in Italy to produce electric energy, and remained the main source at least until the 1960s. For example, of the total 15.5 TWh produced in 1938 hydro accounted for 14.6, or 94%. Hydroelectric energy played a main role in the Italian industrialization since late 19th century. Hydroelectricity contributed for about 87.5% of the total energy produced from 1900 to 1960.
Since the 1960s the share of hydroelectricity decreased constantly due to the increase in energy needs and almost unchanged total capacity. By 1980, share of hydro was already below 25%. The majority of energy was at that time produced by fossil fuels. For comparison, energy consumed in Italy in 2010 was about 20 times that of 1938.
Italian hydroelectric potential is estimated to be exploited at 90%. This explain the almost unchanged total capacity in last 50 years. All the favorable places have already been taken: this poses a limit on the construction of new plants of relevant capacity in terms of technical, economical and environmental problems.
Terna - Italian electric grid operator
{{Renewable energy by country
Italy is the world's 14th largest producer of hydroelectric power
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...
, with a total of 50,582 GWh produced in 2010. Electric energy from hydro accounted for about 18% of the national electricity production in 2010.
There were a total of 2,729 active plants in 2010, of which 302 had a capacity greater than 10 MW. Hydroelectric plants are especially widespread in the north, where there are many rivers and mountains. Lombardy, Piedmont
it, Piemontese
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
and Trentino-Alto Adige contributed for almost 60% of the total energy production in 2010.
Hydroelectricity played a major role in the development of energy sector in Italy, since until the 1950s almost all the electric energy produced in the country came from this source. In fact, almost all the current capacity was installed in the first half of the twentieth century.
Plants in Italy are also used to store excess energy from other sources during off-peak periods.
History
Since the Italian peninsula is relatively recent geological formation, it lacks commercial coal deposits and oil, so hydroelectricity was the first source widely used in Italy to produce electric energy, and remained the main source at least until the 1960s. For example, of the total 15.5 TWh produced in 1938 hydro accounted for 14.6, or 94%. Hydroelectric energy played a main role in the Italian industrialization since late 19th century. Hydroelectricity contributed for about 87.5% of the total energy produced from 1900 to 1960.
Since the 1960s the share of hydroelectricity decreased constantly due to the increase in energy needs and almost unchanged total capacity. By 1980, share of hydro was already below 25%. The majority of energy was at that time produced by fossil fuels. For comparison, energy consumed in Italy in 2010 was about 20 times that of 1938.
Italian hydroelectric potential is estimated to be exploited at 90%. This explain the almost unchanged total capacity in last 50 years. All the favorable places have already been taken: this poses a limit on the construction of new plants of relevant capacity in terms of technical, economical and environmental problems.
Top ten hydroelectric plants in Italy by capacity
See also
*Renewable energy in Italy
Renewable energy has developed rapidly in Italy over the past decade and provided the country a means of diversifying from its historical dependency on imported fuels. Solar power accounted for around 8% of the total electric production in the co ...
*Electricity sector in Italy
Italy's total electricity consumption was 302.75 terawatt-hour (TWh) in 2020, of which 270.55 TWh (89.3%) was produced domestically and the remaining 10.7% was imported.
Italy has a high share of electricity in the total final energy consumption. ...
*List of power stations in Italy
The following page lists power stations in Italy.
List of largest power stations
This is a list of power stations in Italy with a capacity greater than 100 MW.
Other power stations by source
Geothermal (<100 MW)
* Hydr ...
Vajont Dam
The Vajont Dam (or Vaiont Dam) is a disused dam in northern Italy. It is one of the tallest dams in the world, with a height of . It is in the valley of the Vajont River under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, north of Venice ...
*Geothermal power in Italy
Geothermal power accounts for about 1.6-1.8% of the total energy in Italy, electric energy production in Italy and is about 7% of the total renewable energy produced in 2010.
The total energy from Geothermal was 5,660 GWh in 2015. Italy is the ...
*Solar power in Italy
Italy's solar power generation capacity is one of the largest in the world, with its 22.56 GW putting it sixth, just ahead of Australia. In 2019, Italy set a national goal of reaching 50 GW by 2030. In 2022, Italy is anticipating more than 3 GW ...
*Wind power in Italy
Wind power in Italy, at the end of 2015, consisted of more than 1,847 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 8,958 megawatts.
Wind power contributed 5.4% of Italy electricity generation in 2015 (14,589 GWh).
Italy is ranked ...
* Biofuel in Italy
References
External links
Terna - Italian electric grid operator
{{Renewable energy by country