Italy has had four operating nuclear power reactors but shut the last two down following the Chernobyl accident. About 6-8% of the electricity consumed in Italy is from nuclear power – all imported. The government intended to have 25% of electricity supplied by nuclear power by 2030, but this prospect was rejected at a referendum in June 2011.

Italy is the world’s 14th largest producer of hydroelectric power, 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.

Wind power already supplied around 7% of Italy’s power demand annually in 2019. Italy installed 456 new onshore wind power capacity in 2019. Furthermore, wind-generated electricity accounted for 20.1 TWh in 2019, corresponding to about 29% of the country’s total energy demand from renewables.

Solar power accounted for 7% of the electricity generated in Italy during 2013, ranking first in the world. By 2017, that number was close to 8%, which was beaten only by Germany in Europe, with more than 730 000 solar power plants installed in Italy and a total capacity of 19.7 GW.