The Bollette Decree: Key Regulatory Changes in Renewable Energy and Incentives in Italy

INTRODUCTION

On 30 April 2025, Decree-Law No. 19 of 28 February 2025 (the Bollette Decree) came into force.

The bill, titled “Urgent measures in favour of households and companies for tariff facilitation for the supply of electricity and natural gas as well as for the transparency of retail offers and the strengthening of sanctions of the Supervisory Authorities,” as recently converted by Law No. 60 of 24 April 2025, was published in the Official Gazette on 29 April 2025, No. 98.

The regulations contain significant changes to the regulatory framework concerning CERs under Legislative Decree 199/2021 (CER) and the authorisation regimes introduced by Legislative Decree 190/2024 (RES TU) for the construction and operation of plants fuelled by renewable sources.

 

CER REQUIREMENTS AND ELIGIBILITY FOR INCENTIVES

Broadening the membership categories of CERs

The Bollette Decree has broadened the list of entities that can be members of an CER by adding SMEs, including those owned by:

• territorial authorities
• associations
• territorial housing companies
• public assistance and charitable institutions
• reclamation consortia
• public personal service companies
• research and training organisations
• third-sector entities and environmental protection associations
• local administrations

With the substitution of subparagraph (d) of paragraph 1 of LD 199/2021 (CER), the powers of control in the CER may be exercised by the members and categories of persons referred to in the preceding point who are located in the territory where the sharing facilities are located.

Facilitating access to incentives for CERs

The incentives envisaged for CERs can be granted to plants served by CERs that have come into operation within 150 days of the entry into force of Ministerial Decree No. 414 of 7 December 2023 (concerning incentives for self-consumption configurations of electricity from renewable sources). The incentives can still be granted even if the CER had not yet been established at the time the plant came into operation.

This is a significant change. Before this amendment, CERs could only access the incentives provided for by Ministerial Decree No. 414 of 7 December 2023 if they were already duly established on the date the plants came into operation.

Within 90 days from the date of entry into force of the Bollette Decree, as converted, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, upon proposal of the Gestore dei Servizi Energetici S.p.A., will update the operating rules approved pursuant to Article 11, paragraph 1 of Ministerial Decree No. 414 of 7 December 2023.

 

CHANGES TO TU FER

The Bollette Decree has also introduced changes to the RES TU.

Storage systems and thermomechanical electrical accumulators

To foster the development of an adequate storage capacity for energy from non-programmable renewable sources, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, for 2025, will be able to take advantage of the operational support of GSE S.p.A. in relation to the authorisation procedures of storage systems, through a special agreement.

The Bollette Decree also equated the authorisation regimes provided for electrochemical storage systems with thermo-mechanical electric accumulators.

Annexes B and C of the RES TU containing the list of interventions subject to PAS and single authorisation, respectively, now also include thermo-mechanical electric accumulators.

Amendments to the authorisation regime for agri-voltaic plants

The authorisation regime for the construction and operation of agri-voltaic plants has been modified. The simplified authorisation procedure (PAS) referred to in Article 8 of the TU FER no longer applies to agri-voltaic plants.

The construction and operation of agri-voltaic plants will now be authorised as follows:

• Agri-voltaic plants with a capacity of no more than 5 MW are subject to the free activity regime set out in Article 7 of the RES TU.
• Agrovoltaic plants with a capacity of 5 MW or more are subject to the single authorisation referred to in Article 9 of the RES TU.

Offshore wind farms

According to the Bollette Decree, the coastal region concerned will be added to the bodies competent to issue an opinion in the single authorisation procedure for the construction and operation of offshore wind power plants under Article 9(13) of the RES TU.

The coastal region concerned only has to be “heard” and its opinion is to be understood as non-binding, but merely mandatory.

New category for PAS for hydroelectric plants

The Bollette Decree amended Annex B of the RES TU by introducing a new category of interventions subject to the simplified enabling procedure (PAS) under Article 8 of the RES TU.

Hydroelectric plants with a generating capacity of less than 500 kW are also subject to PAS, if:

• they’re built on existing pipelines without increasing either the existing flow rate or the period in which the withdrawal takes place;
• they’re built on existing buildings, provided that they don’t alter the volumes and surfaces;
• they don’t involve changes to the intended use;
• they don’t affect structural parts of the building;
• they don’t involve an increase in the number of building units; and
• they don’t imply an increase in urban planning parameters.

Projects to upgrade or refurbish existing wind power plants up to 30 MW

Annex IV containing the list of projects to be subjected to an EIA under regional competence has been amended.

Projects involving refurbishing or repowering existing, authorised or licensed wind power plants, to be built on the same site as the existing, authorised or licensed wind power plant, and which involve an increase in power of more than 30 MW, are now subject to the verification of subjection to regional EIA.

Since the provision refers to “resurfacing or repowering projects,” the power increase of more than 30 MW must refer to the individual resurfacing or repowering project.

 

OTHER REGULATORY CHANGES

Change in the categories of SSPC producers

The definition of simple production and consumption system (SSPC) has been expanded to allow third parties other than consumers and existing producers to qualify as producers.

The definition of SSPC is now:

“In order to increase the level of competition in energy supply by promoting lower electricity prices for end customers, a system in which an electricity line connects one or more production units operated, as producers, by the same natural or legal person or by different legal persons, to a consumption unit operated by a natural person acting as an end customer or to one or more consumption units operated, as end customers, by the same legal person or by different legal persons, provided that they all belong to the same corporate group.”

In essence, two or more different producers can coexist in an SSPC, even if they don’t belong to the same corporate group as the consumer and/or other producers in the same self-consumption configuration.

Contribution to decoupling the long-term remuneration of existing production from renewable sources from the price formed on the spot electricity market in accordance with European market coupling

Two separate competitive procedures will be carried out in succession in concluding two-way contracts for difference:

• The first competitive procedure on the demand side, involving companies participating as end consumers resident in the territory of the state and permanent establishments in the territory of the state of non-resident entities, regardless of their legal form, economic sector, size and tax regime for determining the company's income, and aggregators.
• The second competitive bidding procedure on the supply side, involving existing renewable energy plant producers for concluding two-way contracts for difference, which confer the right to settle differences between the previous day's market price and a contractual exercise price to cover only the residual costs of operating the plants during the term of the contracts for difference.

These contracts, entered into on a voluntary basis, have a duration of five years and relate to electricity from renewable sources produced by plants established in the national territory. Signing the contracts isn’t compatible with other existing or future support schemes for renewable sources for the entire duration of the contract. The expected volumes of renewable energy plants underlying the contracts are commensurate with the historical production of those plants.

The Minister of the Environment and Energy Security will issue a ministerial decree, establishing:

• the procedures for monitoring compliance and verifying the volumes produced during the contract period;
• the possibility of submitting mandatory progressive bids in terms of price for energy lots;
• the criteria for ensuring full coverage of the GSE between rights allocated on the demand side and rights acquired on the supply side, it being understood that 50% of the rights acquired by the GSE through competitive procedures on the supply side will be allocated to the assigned companies, including in aggregate form, in proportion to the amount of rights acquired by the GSE in relation to the rights allocated to the companies.

The volumes covered by the requests will be commensurate with the historical consumption of the individual assigned companies.

The GSE will also issue technical rules providing for the consolidation of the GSE's right only upon completion of the competitive procedures on the supply side.

By decree of the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, in agreement with the Minister of Economy and Finance, to be issued within 120 days of the date of entry into force of this provision, guarantee systems to be used by the GSE will be regulated, providing for the participation of the assignee companies and the operators of the offer in the establishment and full financing of the guarantee system.

New subsidy for repowering projects

The Bollette Decree provides that the reductions in incentives provided for in Decree Law 145/2013 won’t apply to repowering projects involving an increase in capacity of at least 20% compared to the capacity of the existing plant. In this case, the incentive will be applied to 95% of the production deriving from the plants subject to the measures referred to above.