The Energy Decree Law as converted

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INTRODUCTION

On 20 January 2026, Conversion Law No. 4 of 15 January 2026 No. 4 (the Conversion Law No. 4/2026) of Decree-Law No. 175 of 21 November 2025 on “Urgent measures concerning Transition Plan 5.0 and energy production from renewable sources” was published in Official Gazette No. 15.

 

In this alert we look at the amendments introduced by the Energy Decree Law, as converted with amendments by Conversion Law No. 4/2026 (the Energy Decree Law). And we add preliminary comments on their implications for application.

The amendments concern the regulation of:

• the tax credit for new investments in production facilities located in Italy, as part of innovation projects resulting in a reduction in energy consumption pursuant to Article 38 of Decree Law No. 19 of 2 March 2024, converted, with amendments, by Law No. 56 of 29 April 2024;
• the eligible areas referred to in Legislative Decree 199/2021 (Eligible Areas) and the authorisation regimes introduced by Legislative Decree 190/2024 (TU FER) for the construction and operation of plants powered by renewable sources;
• the scope of application and methods of exercise of the “golden power.”

 

TAX CREDITS REFERRED TO IN TRANSITION PLAN 5.0

Article 1 of the Energy Decree Law concerns the tax credit referred to in Transition Plan 5.0.

A time window is provided for submitting ex ante communications before investment, with peremptory deadlines and limitations for completing the procedure for using the tax credit.

The final deadline for submitting communications is 27 November 2025 (to be sent electronically using a standardised form provided by Gestore dei Servizi Energetici s.p.a (GSE)). It should include a description of the investment project and its cost, accompanied by certifications issued by an independent assessor attesting ex ante the reduction in energy consumption achievable through investments in eligible assets.

For communications submitted from 7 November 2025 until 6 pm on 27 November 2025, if they’re incorrectly uploaded or have incomplete or illegible documentation or information, they can be supplemented, at the request of the GSE, by the applicant companies, within the deadline indicated in the communication and in any case by 6 December 2025.

Failure to comply with requests for supplementation or rectification within these deadlines will mean the procedure for claiming the tax credit isn’t completed. In any case, the lack of elements relating to the certification of energy consumption reduction provided for in Article 15, paragraph 1, letter a) of the Ministerial Decree of 24 July 2024 (see The reduction in energy consumption referred to in Article 9 shall be certified by specific technical certifications, issued by one or more independent assessors in the form of sworn expert reports which, with regard to the eligibility of the innovation project and the completion of the investments, certify: a) ex ante, the reduction in energy consumption achievable through investments in the assets referred to in Article 6).

To avoid incurring the prohibition on cumulation, companies can now choose, by 27 November 2025, the tax credit referred to in Transition Plan 5.0. That is if the company has submitted, for the same assets covered by the subsidy, an application for access to the tax credit for investments in new capital goods referred to in Article 1, paragraphs 1051 et seq. of Law No. 178 of 30 December 2020.

If the benefit isn’t recognised due to exceeding the expenditure limit, subject to verification of the necessary requirements, the right to access the tax credit for investments in new capital goods referred to in Article 1, paragraphs 1051 et seq. of Law No. 178 of 2020 remains unaffected, within the limits of the resources provided for by current legislation for the aforementioned tax credit.

Controls and supervision are entrusted to the GSE. Having ascertained that the conditions haven’t been met, the GSE will take measures to cancel the tax credit reservation and notify the Revenue Agency.

 

CORRECTIONS TO THE TU FER AND SUITABLE AREAS

Definition of ‘Agrivoltaic System’ and exclusion from prohibitions in agricultural areas

Article 2 of the Energy Decree Law introduces the definition of “agrivoltaic system” into Legislative Decree 190/2024. Specifically, letter f-bis) is added to Article 4, which refers to “agrivoltaic system”: a photovoltaic system that preserves the continuity of farming and pastoral activities on the installation site. In order to ensure the continuity of farming and pastoral activities, the system may provide for the rotation of modules placed in an elevated position above the ground and the application of digital and precision farming tools.

The introduction of this definition recognises the “Agrivoltaic Plant” as a distinct and autonomous category with respect to photovoltaic plants with ground-mounted modules in agricultural areas. So the limitations provided for this type of photovoltaic plant, as identified in paragraph 2 of Article 11-bis of the Energy Decree Law, don’t apply (see below, paragraph c.).

The provision in question supplements the provisions of the TU FER, which already considered agrivoltaic systems as a separate category in terms of applicable authorisation and environmental procedures, as opposed to photovoltaic systems tout court.

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 adds a new sentence to Article 11-bis, paragraph 2 of the TU FER. It introduces the obligation for agrivoltaic systems to submit and make available to the administration, as part of its control activities, a sworn statement drawn up by a qualified professional certifying that the system is capable of conserving at least 80% of its 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 article 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’s an obligation to restore the site to its original condition and penalties apply for breaching the authorisation.

The regulation doesn’t refer to the CREA-GSE guidelines, which continue to be the benchmark for the sole purpose of agrivoltaic plants' access to GSE incentives. With regard to access to the support mechanism for innovative agrivoltaic plants referred to in Decree No. 436 of 22 December 2023 of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, the objective and subjective requirements set out in the GSE Operating Regulations remain valid.

The ‘suitable areas’ on land apply immediately

Article 20 of Legislative Decree 199/2021 on suitable areas has been replaced by Article 11-bis of the same Legislative Decree.

This means that some suitable areas already provided for in Article 20, paragraph 8 are confirmed, while other suitable areas are added and others are modified for the worse.

Compared to the previous Article 20, paragraph 8 of Legislative Decree 199/2021, the following areas have been confirmed as “suitable”:

• areas where plants producing energy from the same renewable source are already installed and where modification/refurbishment work is carried out, possibly combined with storage systems, which don’t involve a change in the area occupied of more than 20% (without prejudice to the need to obtain landscape authorisation for the new areas occupied), except for photovoltaic plants on agricultural land, for which no change in area is permitted;
• areas of sites subject to remediation identified pursuant to Title V of Part IV of Legislative Decree No. 152 of 3 April 2006;
• quarries and mines that are closed, unreclaimed or abandoned or in a state of environmental degradation, or portions of quarries and mines that are not susceptible to further exploitation;
• landfills or landfill plots that have been closed or restored;
• sites and facilities owned by companies belonging to the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane group and railway infrastructure operators and motorway concession companies;
• sites and facilities available to airport management companies within airport grounds, including those within the perimeter of the airports of the smaller islands referred to in Annex 1 to the Decree of the Minister of Economic Development of 14 February 2017, published in the Official Gazette No. 114 of 18 May 2017, without prejudice to the necessary technical checks by the National Civil Aviation Authority;

The following “suitable areas” have been added, which are new with respect to Article 20:

• military property or property used for any purpose by the Ministry of Defence referred to in Article 20 of Decree-Law No. 17 of 1 March 2022, converted, with amendments, by Law No. 34 of 27 April 2022, for the purposes set out therein;
• property owned by the state or used for any reason by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice and judicial offices, referred to in Article 10 of Decree-Law No. 144 of 23 September 2022, converted, with amendments, by Law No. 175 of 17 November 2022;
• real estate identified by the State Property Agency, after consultation with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, owned by the state, not covered by programmes for its enhancement or disposal, as well as state property identified by the same agency in agreement with the administrations using it, pursuant to Article 16 of Decree-Law No. 13 of 24 February 2023, No. 13, converted, with amendments, by Law No. 41 of 21 April 2023.

 

During the conversion of the Decree Law, a new paragraph 5-bis was added to Article 5 of the TU FER. According to this new paragraph, for managing authorisation measures aimed at installing plants on land belonging to the military or the State Property Agency, the special commissioner referred to in Article 20, paragraph 3-bis of Decree Law 17/2022 shall 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.

With regard to photovoltaic systems, in addition to the areas referred to in the previous points, with respect to the previous Article 20 of Legislative Decree 199/2021:

the following suitable areas have been confirmed:

• areas adjacent to the motorway network within a distance of no more than 300 m;

the following suitable areas have been added:

• buildings and structures and their appurtenant external areas;
• areas intended for industrial, administrative, craft, commercial use, or for logistics or data processing centres;
• areas used for car parks, limited to covered structures;
• water reservoirs, quarry lakes and disused mines or mines in a state of environmental degradation;
• plants and related areas falling within the perimeter of the integrated water service.

The following eligible areas have been modified.

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

Based on this amendment, for photovoltaic plants, 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, while leaving unchanged the reduction in the size of the eligible area from 500 metres to 350 metres for photovoltaic plants, eliminated the additional conditions originally contained in the Decree Law.

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 removed 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. But the possibility of considering an area adjacent to agricultural or livestock production or renewable energy production as suitable has been excluded.

Conversely, the interpretation – also adopted by case law – has been reinforced, according to which, for the purposes of classifying an area as suitable, electrical substations for connection to the electricity grid may also be considered, given that they aren’t intended for any agricultural or livestock activity and don’t produce energy from renewable sources.

The following suitable areas that were in the previous Article 20, paragraph 8 of Legislative Decree 199/2021 have been eliminated:

• c-ter) point 1) exclusively for photovoltaic systems, including ground-mounted modules, in the absence of restrictions pursuant to Part II of the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code, referred to in Legislative Decree No. 42 of 22 January 2004, areas classified as agricultural, enclosed within a perimeter whose points are no more than 500 m from areas designated for industrial, craft and commercial areas, including sites of national interest, as well as quarries and mines;
• and c-quater), even though c-quater constitutes a criterion on which the Regions will be called upon to identify suitable areas.

With regard to biomethane production plants, in addition to the areas referred to in points (a) to (i) above, the following suitable areas are confirmed:

• areas classified as agricultural enclosed within a perimeter whose points are no more than 500 m from areas designated for industrial, craft and commercial use, including sites of national interest;
• areas within industrial plants and facilities referred to in Article 268, paragraph 1, letter h) and l) of Legislative Decree 152/2006, subject to integrated environmental authorisation pursuant to Title III-bis of Legislative Decree 152/2006, and areas classified as agricultural enclosed within a perimeter whose points are no more than 500 m from the same plant or facility. On this point, during conversion, the reference to submission to integrated environmental authorisation pursuant to Title III-bis of Legislative Decree 152/2006 relating to industrial plants relevant for the suitability of the area was removed;
• areas adjacent to the motorway network within a distance of no more than 300 m.

On the basis of the above, we can make the following observations:

• the new provision in Article 11-bis of the TU FER contains the new list of areas suitable by law for the installation of RES plants, as Article 20, paragraph 8 of Legislative Decree 199/2021 has been repealed and replaced by this provision;
• with regard to areas suitable for the installation of photovoltaic plants, there has been a reduction in the number of suitable areas provided for in the previous Article 20, paragraph 8 of Legislative Decree 199/2021, given that the following are suitable:
• areas within industrial plants and facilities referred to in Article 268, paragraph 1, letters h) and l) of Legislative Decree 152/2006 not intended for agricultural or livestock production, nor for the production of energy from renewable sources; and
• areas classified as agricultural enclosed within a perimeter whose points are no more than 350 m from the same plant or establishment: Article 20, on the other hand, provided for a distance of 500 m between agricultural areas and industrial plants or establishments and didn’t contain any reference to the fact that the industrial establishments or plants to be considered for the purposes of the suitability of the area should not be intended for agricultural or livestock production, nor for the production of energy from renewable sources, and this allowed photovoltaic plants with a capacity exceeding 20 kW and wind farms to be included – by way of interpretation – in the definition of industrial plants;

• new areas suitable for the installation of biomethane production plants have been introduced.

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 contains an important new feature: paragraph 1-bis has been introduced to Article 12, which exempts procedures in progress at the time of entry into force of the Decree Law (ie 22 November 2025) from the new regulations, which are still governed by the previous legislation.

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

It’s therefore necessary that the application has been submitted complete with the documentation required by the regulations applicable ratione temporis. Only in this case 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 specifications on this point, so it wasn’t clear whether and under what circumstances an objection to the prime minister could be raised and within which authorisation process. The only specification is that the area must be of high agricultural value.

Prohibitions on ground-mounted photovoltaic systems in agricultural areas

Article 2, paragraph 1, letter h) of the Energy Decree transcribes Article 5 of the Agriculture Decree, which introduced paragraph 1 bis into Article 20 of Legislative Decree 199/2021, and introduces paragraph 2 of Article 11-bis of the TU FER.

The provision merely confirms the prohibition on the installation of ground-mounted photovoltaic systems in areas classified as agricultural by current urban plans, except for the following cases: in the areas referred to in paragraph 1, letters a), limited to interventions for the modification, renovation, upgrading or complete reconstruction of already installed systems, provided that they don’t involve an increase in the area occupied, c), d), e), f), l), numbers 1) and 2).

This provision doesn’t apply to the following cases:

• projects involving ground-mounted photovoltaic systems aimed at building a renewable energy community within the meaning of Article 31 of Legislative Decree 199/2021;
• projects implementing other investment measures of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), ie projects necessary for achieving PNRR objectives;
• projects for the construction of agrivoltaic systems, as defined by the new letter f-bis) of Article 4 of the TU FER – ie agrivoltaic plants that preserve the continuity of cultivation and pastoral activities on the installation site, including the rotation of modules placed at a height above the ground and the application of digital and precision farming tools – through the use of modules placed at a suitably high position above the ground.

This latest provision is a new development and is welcomed, as it clearly excludes both “basic” and “advanced” agrivoltaic systems from the prohibition.

This provision also doesn’t provide for a transitional regime for authorisation procedures that are ongoing or have already been initiated, unlike the previous Article 5 of the Agriculture Decree Law.

The provision risks being unconstitutional, given that the Constitutional Court is already examining the previous (similar) a priori ban introduced by Article 5 of the Agriculture Decree Law.

Admissibility of RES plants in ‘free activity’ UNESCO site protection areas

The Energy Decree also introduces Article 11-quinquies into the TU FER. According to this article, within UNESCO site protection areas, installing renewable energy plants is permitted only for the interventions referred to in Annex A of the TU FER, ie interventions subject to the free building activity regime.

 

The use of the word “limited” in identifying the construction of renewable energy plants permitted in UNESCO sites to only those falling within category A seems to imply a ban on the installation, in these sites, of the categories of works referred to in Annexes B and C of the TU FER and therefore of works that can be approved with PAS and single authorisation.

 

This interpretation is also supported by the new Article 11 bis, paragraph 4, letter d) of the TU FER. In identifying the guiding criteria that the Regions and Autonomous Provinces must comply with when adopting their own laws on suitable areas, the article provides for the impossibility of establishing general and abstract prohibitions on installing renewable energy plants, without prejudice to the prohibition on the installation of photovoltaic plants in agricultural areas referred to in Article 11-bis, paragraph 2 (except for the exceptions provided for) and the provisions of Article 11-quinquies under consideration.

Entrusting the concession of suitable areas on sites and plants available to motorway concessionaires

 

Motorway concession companies award concessions for suitable areas on sites at their disposal. They award concessions after determining the relevant fees, on the basis of public procedures, initiated also at the request of a party, by publishing a notice, in compliance with the principles of transparency, impartiality and proportionality, ensuring conditions of effective competition.

 

The notices have to define, in a clear, transparent, proportionate and non-discriminatory manner, the subjective requirements for participation and the criteria for selecting applications. They should also state the maximum duration of sub-concessions.

 

If the conditions set out in Article 76(2)(a) of the code referred to in Legislative Decree No 36 of 31 March 2023 are met, concession companies can award the suitable areas by means of sub-concession to subsidiaries or affiliates to ensure the necessary coordination of work on the network under management and the resolution of interference.

 

Subsidiaries or affiliates have to award works, services and supplies on the basis of public tender procedures, in accordance with the principles of transparency, impartiality and proportionality, ensuring conditions of effective competition.

 

The duration of sub-concession agreements are determined on the basis of the useful life of the facilities and the investments necessary for their construction and management. They can exceed the duration of the motorway concession, without prejudice to the possibility for the concessionaire taking over the management to terminate the sub-concession agreement by paying compensation equal to the investments made that haven’t been fully amortised.

‘Suitable areas’ for offshore plants are immediately enforceable

With regard to offshore plants for the production of energy from renewable sources, including the measures referred to in Annex C, Section II, letter v) of the TU FER, the regulation rewrites (by introducing Article 11-ter into the TU FER) the previous Article 23 of Legislative Decree 199/2021. It confirms that the areas identified by the maritime space management plans pursuant to Article 5(1)(c) and (5) of Legislative Decree 201/2017 and Prime Ministerial Decree No. 19/2018 are suitable.

It also confirms that the following are considered suitable:

• disused oil platforms and areas 2 nautical miles from each platform, without prejudice to the provisions of Ministerial Decree of 15 February 2019;
• ports, for wind farms up to 100 MW, subject to any amendments to the port master plan, where necessary, to be adopted within six months of the submission of the single authorisation application.

‘Suitable areas’ to be identified by the regions or autonomous provinces

Within 120 days of the date of entry into force of the Energy Decree Law (ie 22 March 2026), each region and autonomous province has to identify, by means of its own law, the areas suitable for the installation of additional RES plants in addition to the areas suitable by law referred to in paragraph b. above, in accordance with the principles and criteria established by Article 11-bis, paragraph 4 of the TU FER and the objectives referred to in paragraph 5 of the same article.

During conversion, the deadline by which the autonomous provinces must identify areas suitable for the installation of RES plants by law has been amended. The 120-day deadline by which each region must identify suitable areas remained unchanged, while the autonomous provinces must identify suitable areas within 180 days of the entry into force of the Energy Decree Law, ensuring the appropriate involvement of local authorities.

To identify additional areas suitable for the installation of renewable energy plants, the regions and provinces have to take into account the following principles and criteria:

• protecting cultural heritage and the landscape, air and water quality, and agricultural areas, with particular regard to those of value and forest areas;
• safeguarding the specific characteristics of areas included in the Natura 2000 network and protected natural areas, wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and UNESCO site protection areas, in accordance with the provisions of Article 11-quinquies of the TU FER;
• the classification of an area as suitable may depend on the type of renewable energy plant or the power of a given plant;
• it’s impossible to impose general and abstract prohibitions on the installation of renewable energy plants;
• priority qualification as suitable areas for surfaces and structures that are built on or characterised by soil sealing, also with a view to promoting individual and collective self-consumption;
• to classify an agricultural area as suitable, the presence of productive activities and farms established in the area is relevant;
• to preserve the agricultural use of the land, agricultural areas that can be classified as suitable at regional level can’t be less than 0.8% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) nor more than 3% of the UAA itself; without prejudice to this percentage ratio, specific percentages of UAA exploitation may be defined at municipal level.

   

  During conversion, this criterion was partially modified, in that, for the purposes of calculating UAA, account must also be taken of areas covered by agrivoltaic installations 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, leading to a clear reduction in agricultural areas that can be classified as “suitable”;
• give priority to areas characterised by the presence of industrial centres, also with a view to facilitating self-consumption and the decarbonisation of productive sectors;
• give priority to qualifying areas experiencing complex industrial crisis as suitable, also with a view to promoting industrial conversion and safeguarding employment levels;
• to balance the needs of environmental protection with those of cultural and landscape heritage protection, the regions can’t classify as suitable areas included within the perimeter of assets subject to protection pursuant to Legislative Decree 42/2004 or those included in a 3 km buffer zone, in the case of wind farms, and 500 m, in the case of photovoltaic plants, from the perimeter of the protected assets themselves, nor identify as suitable areas where the characteristics of the plants to be built are in conflict with the implementation rules provided for in the landscape plans.

 

On the basis of the above, we can make the following observations:

As recently stated by the Regional Administrative Court of Rome, areas deemed suitable by law constitute a fundamental and essential core for the installation of RES plants, given that the regions and autonomous provinces can only identify additional areas suitable for RES plants beyond those already provided for in Article 11-bis, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Renewable Energy Sources (TU FER).

The regions and autonomous provinces can only identify additional areas “suitable” for the installation of RES plants by regional law and not “unsuitable” areas.

In identifying “suitable” areas, the regions and autonomous provinces can’t impose generalised bans on the construction of plants, contrary to the provisions of Regional Law 20/2024 of the Region of Sardinia.

Given the new definition of the principles and criteria for identifying additional areas suitable for the installation of RES plants, pursuant to the parameter set out in Article 10 of Law No. 62/1953, previous regional laws that conflict with this new principle established by the state may be considered implicitly repealed.

This measure reduces the scope for conflict between the state and the regions, because no derogations can be introduced for areas identified as suitable at national level and because the introduction of general and abstract prohibitions, and therefore moratoria, is prohibited, and consistency with decarbonisation objectives has been imposed.

Power of the state to take action and replace the regions/provinces in the event of inaction

The Department for Regional Affairs and Autonomies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers also exercises driving functions for exercising substitute power.

In the event of failure to adopt the law within the deadline, or failure to comply with the principles and criteria referred to in paragraph 4 or the objectives referred to in paragraph 5, Article 41 of Law No. 234 of 24 December 2012 shall apply.

Law No. 234 provides for the adoption of substitute state measures for non-compliant regions and provinces, with effect from the expiry of the deadline set for the implementation of the relevant EU legislation, and which shall in any case cease to have effect from the date of entry into force of the implementing measures of each region and autonomous province.

The state measures must explicitly indicate the substitute nature of the power exercised and the flexible nature of the provisions contained therein. The legislative acts have to be submitted for prior examination to the Permanent Conference for Relations between the state, the regions and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano. The autonomous provinces are responsible for the planning process to identify suitable areas in accordance with the Special Statute and the relevant implementing regulations.

Provisions on authorisation regimes for plants in Suitable Areas

The Energy Decree Law introduces into Legislative Decree 190/2024 the new Article 11-quater on “Regulation of simplified administrative regimes for plants in suitable areas.” In particular:

• The implementation of the measures referred to in Annexes A and B of the TU FER (ie works subject to the free building regime and the simplified authorisation procedure) in suitable areas is not subject to the acquisition of authorisation from the competent landscape authority, which issues a mandatory and non-binding opinion within the same time limits as those provided for the issue of the relevant acts of consent pursuant to Articles 7 and 8 of the TU FER.
• As part of the single authorisation procedures relating to the works referred to in Annex C of the TU FER (ie works subject to single authorisation) located in suitable areas, the landscape authority has to issue a mandatory and non-binding opinion, including for environmental impact assessments, and, if the deadline for issuing its opinion has passed without response, the proceeding authority has to decide on the single authorisation application.
• The terms of the single authorisation procedure for the construction and operation of the plants referred to in Annex C of the TU FER falling within suitable areas are reduced by one third, rounded down to the nearest whole number, where necessary.
• The provisions referred to in the previous points also apply in the case of developing or upgrading the national transmission network.

The provision follows the previous provision of Article 22 of Legislative Decree 199/2021 but with the following change: the provisions referred to in the previous points only apply if the RES plant is located entirely in areas classified as suitable.

This assessment seems to exclude the development and upgrading of the national transmission network, which could therefore be located in unsuitable areas and enjoy the benefits of the suitable areas of the plant. However, no mention is made of user-side connection works, which must also be located in a suitable area for the purposes of the assessment.

If the plant is not located or is only partially located in a suitable area, the above provisions don’t apply. The criterion of unsuitability of the area therefore prevails.

Checks carried out by the municipality on agrivoltaic plants

During the conversion of the Energy Decree Law, an additional period was introduced in Article 11, paragraph 8 of the TU FER, according to which, without prejudice to the restoration of the site, penalties for violation of the authorisation also apply to the installation of agrivoltaic systems that don’t allow for the preservation of agricultural and pastoral activities at the installation site.

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

On this point, a new period has been introduced in Article 11-bis, paragraph 2 of the TU FER. For the installation of an agrivoltaic system, the proponent must submit a sworn statement drawn up by a qualified professional certifying that the system is suitable for preserving at least 80% of gross saleable production. This declaration must be attached to the project submitted pursuant to Article 9 and, in any case, must be made available to the administration as part of the control activities.

Decarbonisation targets and agreement between regions

Article 2, paragraph 1, letter p) of the Energy Decree Law confirms the decarbonisation obligations of the regions in accordance with the provisions of the Ministerial Decree of 21 June 2024.

Annex C-bis is introduced into the TU FER, which contains the same table as the Ministerial Decree of 21 June 2024 and confirms the same regional allocations of the minimum annual power to be installed for a total of 80 GW cumulatively between 2021 and 2030.

The regions must significantly speed up their administrative procedures if they want to achieve the 2030 targets, even though each region is expected to be able to enter into agreements with other regions for the statistical transfer of certain amounts of power from renewable sources.

A decree issued by the competent Director-General of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security defines the standard agreement for statistical transfer, and the methods for calculating the quantities of power involved in the transfer.

For renewable energy plants located in the territory of several regions or autonomous provinces, or whose production is attributable to contributions from several regions or autonomous provinces, the allocation of the respective power for achieving the objectives will be defined by agreements entered into between each local authority concerned.

The Digital Platform for Suitable Areas and Acceleration Zones

The Energy Decree also introduces the new Article 12-bis into the TU FER. To ensure adequate support to the regions and autonomous provinces in the process of identifying suitable areas and acceleration zones and in related monitoring activities, the operating procedures of the platform established by MASE Decree of 17 September 2024 must be regulated to include all information and tools necessary to connect and process data characterise and qualify the territory, estimate potential and classify surfaces, areas and zones. This must be done within 60 days of the entry into force of the Energy Decree, by Decree of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE), and subject to agreement at the Unified Conference referred to in Article 8 of Legislative Decree 281/1997.

This platform also contains a counter of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) intended for the installation of RES plants, fed by information and data provided by the regions and autonomous provinces regarding the areas classified as agricultural in their respective territories.

Repeal of provisions

Articles 18, 20, 21, 22 and 23 of Legislative Decree 199/2021 have been repealed.

 

AMENDMENTS CONCERNING THE ‘GOLDEN POWER’

Conversion Law No. 4/2026 has added a new Article 2-bis to the text of the coordinated decree-law. It 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, for the purposes of exercising 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.

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