The Ministry of the Environment publishes the Ministerial Decree which updates the incentive mechanism: doors open to CERs, collective self-consumption and third sector bodies. Among the interventions that can be incentivized are also PV with storage and charging stations
Thermal Account 2024 available for consultation until 10 May
(Rinnovabili.it) – White smoke for the scheme Thermal Account Decree 3.0. Yesterday afternoon the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Safety published on its website the document containing the regulatory updates being studied, opening a public consultation on possible innovations. And there are various changes that could affect the incentives currently dedicated to energy efficiency and small thermal renewable plants. Starting with the will to broaden the range of beneficiaries. The draft of the DM, in fact, also opens the doors to new configurations of virtual self-consumption, confirming the advances that emerged in recent months. Not only. The eligible interventions are growing and diversifying, also bringing in the photovoltaic with batteries, electric vehicle charging stations, micro-cogeneration and district heating.
All these proposals will remain available for public consultation until 10 May 2024. Interested parties – explains the MASE in a short press note – will be able to send their observations to the PEC email address [email protected] using the Membership form present on the site.
But the ministry does not limit itself to presenting the new Thermal Account Decree 3.0. In the scheme under consultation he also announces the preparation of a new provision for large-scale interventions for the production of renewable thermal energy. The text reads: “The definition of an ad hoc provision will be envisaged, with the identification of new interventions and new sectors (e.g. industrial sector) with respect to which the Thermal Account regulation will be able to provide an impulse and greater effectiveness with respect to the achievement of decarbonisation objectives ”.
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Thermal Account 2.0 vs Thermal Account 3.0
The Thermal Account was created to encourage increase interventions of theenergy efficiency and of thermal energy production from renewable sources for small-sized plants. Currently the tool is reserved only for PAs and private entities who can apply on their own or through an ESCO. And access to contributions occurs through two methods: direct, which requires a request to be submitted within 60 days of the end of the works and provides a simplified process for the installation of small-sized appliances; through reservationfor interventions still to be carried out, but exclusively under the ownership of the Public Administrations and ESCOs.
In the 2024 Thermal Account scheme the range of subjects expands and diversifies. In fact, it is expected that companies will also be able to participate in the incentive mechanism renewable energy communities, widespread self-consumption configurations and third sector bodies. It also comes limited access to incentives through the intervention of ESCOs only to “large works”, such as the replacement of winter air conditioning systems with new installations with a total power exceeding 70 kW or the installation of solar thermal systems exceeding 20 m2 in size. Furthermore, ESCOs lose the booking tool.
For them PA instead it will be possible to resort to forms of public-private cooperation (PPP contracts) and, therefore, “to the participation of private entities in the redevelopment costs”.
Finally for i private entities precise fields are introduced interventions linked to the cadastral category of the property subject to redevelopment. In detail, the 2023 Thermal Account scheme provides: in the civil residential sector, the possibility of incentivising only small-scale interventions for thermal production from RES and for the installation of high-efficiency systems; in the non-residential civil sector, any intervention of those permitted without limitation in size.
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Thermal Account Decree 3.0, what interventions are allowed?
The Conto Termico 3.0 proposal also modifies the eligible interventions. Side energy efficiencythe following works are added to the list already present in the Thermal Account 2.0 (the current legislation):
- installation of screening and/or shading systems of transparent closures with exposure from East-south-east to West, fixed or mobile, non-transportable;
- installation of infrastructural elements for the private charging of electric vehicles, also open to the public;
- installation of photovoltaic solar systems and related storage systems, at the building or in the relevant appurtenances
For these last two interventions there is a binding condition: that they be carried out in parallel with the replacement of existing winter air conditioning systems with electric heat pump systems.
On the front of the small-scale interventions for the production of thermal energy, the list becomes more detailed, adding to what is already provided for by the law, the replacement of air conditioning systems combined with those for the production of domestic hot water. And opening the doors to heat pumps, electric or gas, using aerothermal, geothermal or hydrothermal energy.
Furthermore, the text provides:
- the replacement of existing winter air conditioning systems or the heating of existing greenhouses and rural buildings with systems powered by biomass, including hybrid heat pump systems;
- the installation of solar thermal systems for the production of domestic hot water and/or to integrate the winter air conditioning system, also combined with solar cooling systems, for the production of thermal energy for production processes or injection into district heating networks and district cooling;
- interventions to replace winter air conditioning systems with the connection to district heating systems powered by renewable sources, even if simultaneously functional to summer air conditioning;
- replacement or functional replacement of existing winter air conditioning systems with winter air conditioning systems using micro-cogeneration units powered by renewable sources.
