Zero-cost power hours in Italy quadrupled in a year

Italy's wholesale market cleared at zero for 88 hours in H1 2026 against 20 a year earlier, as solar and wind hit a 33% demand record.

Italy's wholesale electricity market cleared at zero for 88 hours in the first half of 2026, against 20 hours in the same period of 2025 — a fourfold rise in twelve months. ENEA, the national energy agency, ties it directly to the growth of intermittent generation: solar output rose 19% and wind 16% over the period, and in May the two together covered a record 33% of national demand.

The rest of the picture is less clean. Total renewable growth stalled at just over 1%, because hydroelectric output fell as solar and wind climbed. Demand grew 2.5%, and gas-fired generation grew 4.4% to cover it. Italian CO2 emissions fell 2% against an EU average of 3%, and ENEA's Ispred transition index dropped 25% by mid-year, on the further delay to the 2030 decarbonisation target and higher petroleum prices.

Zero-price hours are the clearest available signal that electricity is becoming genuinely abundant rather than merely cleaner. For those hours the marginal cost of power is nothing, and the binding constraint moves from generation to storage and to demand that can be shifted to meet it.

The counterweight sits in the same analysis. After the Strait of Hormuz crisis, crude rose 27% over the half and 50% between March and June, and electricity prices rose more than 20% across EU countries. Free sunlit hours and an expensive rest of the day are coexisting. Watch whether storage build-out starts catching the surplus.

Source: pv magazine