Ground-mounted solar installations occupied 2,798 hectares in Italy in 2025, up from 1,700 hectares in 2024, according to the new “Land Consumption, Urban Ecosystems and the State of the Territory” report by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) and the National System for Environmental Protection (SNPA).
Annual additions have increased sharply over the past five years, from 75 hectares in 2021 to 263 hectares in 2022, 420 hectares in 2023, 1,700 hectares in 2024 and 2,798 hectares in 2025. The area occupied by new ground-mounted solar installations grew from 0.75 square kilometers to 28 square kilometers over that period.
Solar accounted for around 27% of the 10,243 hectares of land consumed in Italy in 2025, as total land consumption increased by 22.4% compared with 2024. After accounting for 746 hectares of restored land, net land consumption reached 9,497 hectares, the highest level since 2012.
Ground-mounted solar installations now occupy a total of 21,368 hectares, corresponding to around 12,570 MW of capacity. The southern region of Puglia has the largest installed area, at 4,764 hectares.
According to ISPRA, ground-mounted solar panels represent a significant share of reversible land consumption, unlike buildings and roads, which are classified as permanent land consumption. The report separately identifies 448.5 hectares of low-density solar installations, including many agrivoltaic projects, where modules cover less than half of the site area. These installations are not counted as consumed land.
In 2025, Lazio recorded 952 hectares of new ground-mounted solar installations out of 1,436 hectares of total land consumption, accounting for about two-thirds of the regional total.
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