New provisions of Conversion Law No. 4/2026 of the Energy Decree Law

Introduction

On 20 January 2026, Conversion Law No. 4/2026 of 15 January 2026 No. 4 (the Conversion Law No. 4/2026) of Decree-Law No. 175 of 21 November 2025 came into force. It contains “Urgent measures concerning Transition Plan 5.0 and energy production from renewable sources” (the Decree Law).

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 contains significant amendments to the Decree Law.

In this article we analyse them in detail.

 

Transitional regime

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 contains a significant change: paragraph 1-bis has been added to Article 12. It exempts procedures in progress when the Decree Law entered into force (ie 22 November 2025) from the new provisions, meaning they’re still governed by the previous legislation.

“Ongoing procedures” means licensing or authorisation procedures, including environmental assessment procedures, for which the completeness of the documentation submitted with the project has been verified by the date the Decree Law entered into force.

The application has to have been submitted complete with the documentation required by the regulations applicable ratione temporis. Only then will the previous regulations continue to apply to the authorisation process.

Where the site concerned is classified as being of high agricultural value, the region or autonomous province with territorial jurisdiction can lodge an objection with the prime minister at the decision-making services conference pursuant to Article 14-quinquies of Law 241/1990. There are no details on this point, so it’s not clear whether and under what circumstances an objection to the President of the Council of Ministers can be raised and under which authorisation process.

 

New developments regarding ‘Suitable Areas’ ope legis

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 amends and expands the scope of application of suitable areas pursuant to Article 11-bis, paragraph 1, letter l), no. 1) and letter m), no. 2).

According to this amendment, for photovoltaic systems, “suitable areas” are areas within industrial plants and facilities not intended for agricultural or livestock production or for the production of energy from renewable sources, as referred to in Article 268, paragraph 1, letters h) and l) of Legislative Decree 152/2006, and areas classified as agricultural enclosed within a perimeter whose points are no more than 350 m from the same plant or facility.

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 has eliminated the additional conditions originally contained in the Decree Law. But it leaves unchanged the reduction in the size of the eligible area from 500 m to 350 m for photovoltaic plants.

Specifically, in Conversion Law No. 4/2026, the reference to the requirement for integrated environmental authorisation pursuant to Title III-bis of Legislative Decree No. 152/2006 relating to industrial plants relevant to the suitability of the area has been removed. But the possibility to consider an area adjacent to agricultural or livestock production or renewable energy production as suitable has been excluded.

A different interpretation has been reinforced and also adopted by case law. For the purposes of classifying the area as “suitable,” electrical substations for connection to the electricity grid may also be considered, given that they’re not intended for any agricultural or livestock activity and don’t produce energy from renewable sources.

 

Agrivoltaic systems: Requirement for a certified declaration and related controls and sanctions

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 adds a new period to Article 11-bis, paragraph 2 of the TU FER. It introduces the obligation for agrivoltaic plants to submit and make available to the administration, as part of its control activities, a sworn statement drawn up by a qualified professional. The statement has to certifying that the plant is suitable for conserving at least 80% of gross saleable production.

In the five years following the construction of the agrivoltaic plant, the municipality with territorial jurisdiction can verify the continued suitability of the installation site for agricultural and pastoral use.

Penalties for violating this requirement are provided for in Article 11 of Legislative Decree 190/2024. This is supplemented by the provision of the Conversion Law according to which, in the event of violation of the obligation to preserve the continuity of agricultural and pastoral activities on the installation site, there is an obligation to restore the site to its original condition and penalties apply in the event of a breach of the authorisation.

 

Criteria for the identification of additional suitable areas by the regions

Criteria for identifying suitable areas: Calculating UAA

With regard to the criteria for identifying suitable areas, all criteria remain unchanged, except for the criterion referred to in Article 11-bis, paragraph 4, letter g) of the TU FER. According to this criterion, to preserve the agricultural use of the land, agricultural areas that qualify as suitable areas at regional level may not be less than 0.8% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) nor more than 3% of the UAA itself.

During conversion, this criterion was partially modified. To calculate the UAA, account must also be taken of the areas on which agrivoltaic plants are located and that the regions and autonomous provinces may provide that areas suitable by law falling within agricultural areas contribute to the calculation of the aforementioned percentages. This leads to a clear reduction in agricultural areas that can be classified as “suitable areas.”

Timelines for identifying suitable areas

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 maintained the 120-day deadline for the regions to identify, by law, additional suitable areas in addition to the areas suitable by law referred to Article 11-bis of the TU FER. However, for the autonomous provinces, this timeframe has been extended to 180 days from the same date, ensuring the appropriate involvement of local authorities.

 

Plants on state-owned property

Finally, during the conversion of Decree Law, a new paragraph 5-bis was introduced to Article 5 of the TU FER. To manage authorisation measures aimed at installing plants on state-owned military property or property belonging to the State Property Agency, the special commissioner referred to in Article 20, paragraph 3-bis of Decree Law 17/2022 has to use the SUER platform as the administering authority.

Limited to these interventions, the decrees defining the standard forms for the submission of applications will be adopted by the Ministry of Defence, rather than by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security.

 

Changes to golden power

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 added a new Article 2-bis to the text of the coordinated Decree-Law, which amends the regulatory framework of the golden power provided for by Decree-Law 21/2012, strengthening its application, particularly in the financial, credit and insurance sectors.

• Expansion of the scope of application. In paragraph 3 of Article 2 of Decree-Law 21/2012, after the phrase “national and European sectoral legislation,” it has been added that this also includes legislation on the prudential assessment of acquisitions of qualifying holdings in the financial sector and the control of concentrations between undertakings. This means that, to exercise special powers, economic security issues related to transactions in the financial sector are now specifically included, in addition to traditional public security or public order issues. This broadens the basis for assessment for state intervention compared to the previous regime.
• Coordination with European authorities. Paragraph 4 now states that, in the financial sector (including credit and insurance), golden power measures cannot be exercised before the completion of proceedings pending before the competent European authorities assessing prudential and competition aspects (such as the ECB or EIOPA/EU Commission). This prevents the early application of special powers before the European authorities have completed their assessments.

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This alert outlines the main provisions introduced by Conversion Law No. 6 of 15 January 2026 to Decree-Law No. 175 of 21 November 2025, containing “Urgent measures concerning the 5.0 transition plan and energy production from renewable sources.”