And big mess. It can be summed up as follows: Italian way to energy transition. On June 14th, the Minister of Environment and Energy Security signed the decree on objectives and suitable areas for the installation of systems from renewable energy sources: after a close discussion, it was decided that the Regions should identify the areas suitable for the installation of the production plants. Regions have 180 days of time to equip itself with its own law.
A decree that arrived late
But the decree signed two weeks ago was waited for almost three years: the “father” legislative decree dates back to 2021 and the implementing decrees had to be signed within 6 months, but instead they arrived in June 2024. In this long interval there was a real “assault on diligence” to grab the areas on to install the systems.
“An element of absolute ambiguity has been created which has blocked the most serious and responsible people and given the green light to the most unscrupulous people who move within the open and ambiguous framework of the rules” observes‘Regional Councillor for the Environment Monia Monni.
If you close the fence when the oxen have already escaped…
The pen was closed on June 14th: but in the meantime, how many oxen have escaped? And what will now happen to the requests for large plants presented during this very long “transitional period”? Nobody knows. For Tuscany there are 42were presented by the most disparate subjects, including large players such as Sorgenia, Iren, Acciona, to name a few, and are concentrated in some areas such as Maremma and Val Tiberina: there are, for example, requests for authorization for as many as eight plants photovoltaic plants in the municipality of Manciano, in the province of Grosseto, and for seven wind farms in the municipality of Badia Tedalda, in the province of Arezzo.
«The decree signed by the minister regulates the renewable power targets that each Region must reach by 2030. For Tuscany, this is 4.2 gigawatts of additional power: an important target, given that we are starting from around 2.6 gigawatts, which means tripling the current power — he explains David Teimanager of the ecological transition sector of the Region – Furthermore, the decree establishes that the Regions will define the suitable areas”.
What Tuscany can do, what the Government can do
Tuscany, for example, will be able to evaluate the opportunity to build the systems while also taking into account its own regulations for the protection of the landscape. But it is not a given that the Region itself will then give the authorizations. «The authorization of the plants is not part of the decree, it is part of another discipline and today, depending on the size of the plants, the competence lies with the Municipality or the Region or the State», adds Tei. Large plants are under ministerial responsibility, small ones are municipal, medium-sized ones are regional. Since 2021, requests for large plants have been presented to the Government, but now that the ball on identifying suitable areas has passed to the Regions, what will happen? We don’t know. «In the transitional provisions prior to the approval of the decree of 14 June there was a paragraph according to which ongoing proceedings were “without prejudice”. In the approved decree this paragraph disappeared and was not replaced with anything: the question was simply left in the hands of the Regions. We are carefully evaluating with our lawyers because in general acquired rights are always protected but for example Sardinia is reading this void in a restrictive sense and is considering the possibility of blocking some proceedings. The risk of litigation is very high.”
The problem of small plants and agrivoltaics
Then there are two further chapters. The first concerns i small plants for which applications are submitted directly to the Municipalities: no one knows how many there are, but in any case they are systems with a power of up to 10 megawatts, i.e. 10 hectares of photovoltaic panels.
That’s the second chapter dell’agrivoltaico which should allow the production of energy together with the conduct of agricultural activity. The Ministry of Environment and Energy did not regulate it, it should have taken care of it the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida who however «managed to do even worse — says Monni — Article 5 of the Agriculture Decree, currently being converted, should in fact regulate the spread of agrivoltaic and photovoltaic systems in agricultural areas, but it does so in such a confusing way that not only have all the Regions asked for technical clarifications, but the Government itself has announced important changes». At present, you can make infinite expanses of solar panels by planting a few sunflowers between one and the other.
