Green light to the conversion of the “D.L. Energia”: the main changes and innovations

With the final approval by the Senate on January 31, 2024, the process of conversion into law of the Decree Law No. 181/2023 comes to an end. The Chamber of Deputies had already approved the conversion bill, following the confidence motion proposed by the Government on the related text.  The main innovations and changes contained in the approved text, as a result of various amendments during the conversion phase, are reported below.

Firstly, compared to the initial version of the new so-called “Energy Release” mechanism,  introduced by art. 1 of the Decree Law (for the first comments, please refer to the following link):

• energy-consuming companies will be able to purchase energy from renewable sources “even indirectly”;
• the plants necessary to implement the new generation capacity will have a minimum power of 200 kW (instead of 1 MW).

Secondly, art. 4, para. 2, of the Decree Law, which established an annual contribution for RES-plants holders with power exceeding 20 kW, to be paid for the first 3 years from the entry into operation, if the holders had obtained the permit for the construction of the plant between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2030, has been removed. This annual contribution, amounting to 10 Euros for each kW of plant power, would have been paid to the GSE and would have sustained a Ministry of Environment and Energy Security’s fund to the benefit of the Regions, to adopt decarbonization measures and promote sustainable territorial development. With the abolition of para. 2, the fund for the Regions under para. 1 is sustained by part of the proceeds from auctions of carbon dioxide emission allowances under art. 23 of Legislative Decree No. 47/2020.

Another novelty is represented by the addition of Article 4-bis, through which the scope of application of the environmental impact assessment subjection check (so-called EIA Screening) is extended to interventions, even substantial modifications, for revamping, repowering, and rebuilding of electricity production plants from wind or solar sources.

Art. 4-ter, para. 2, of the Decree Law reintroduces, after almost 12 (twelve) years, the possibility of accessing incentive mechanisms provided by Legislative Decree No. 199/2021 (and not also by Ministerial Decree July 4, 2019, so-called “FER 1”) for photovoltaic plants on agricultural land.

Art. 4-ter, para. 3, of the Decree Law amends Legislative Decree no. 199/2021, where it prioritizes the participation to incentives of those who carry out refurbishment interventions on existing photovoltaic plants located in agricultural areas and involving the creation of new plants or new plant sections, on the same area and with the same occupied agricultural surface, with an increase in total power.

Furthermore, art. 4-septies of the Decree Law introduces Article 7-bis into Legislative Decree no. 199/2021, which states that one or more decrees of the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security shall define the modalities for the establishment of a new incentive mechanism, alternative to those already provided by Articles 6 and 7, aimed at promoting investments in renewable energy production capacity and setting forth a series of principles and criteria (letters a-o).

By inserting para. 3-ter into art. 5 of the Decree Law, GSE incentives provided by Ministerial Decree of September 15, 2022, initially restricted, among others, to new biomethane production plants powered by OFMSW, are also extended to plants powered by OFMSW which have undergone conversion.

Regarding the development policies for floating wind turbines at sea, art. 8 of the Decree Law has been amended so that the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security shall publish a notice for the acquisition of expressions of interest for the identification, in at least 2 (two) ports in southern Italy or port areas adjacent to those undergoing gradual coal use elimination, of maritime state-owned areas allocated for the construction of infrastructures suitable for ensuring the development of investments in the shipbuilding sector for the production, assembly, and launching of floating platforms, and electrical infrastructures functional to the development of shipbuilding for offshore wind energy production. With the same amendment, the publication of a vademecum by the above Ministry for proponent entities has been stipulated, relating to the minimum information and obligations necessary to initiate the single authorization procedure for offshore wind installations.

With para. 9-undecies of art. 9 of the Decree Law, it is stipulated that the start of authorization procedures for RES plants and electrochemical storage systems, including connected works thereof, does not require the technical conformity opinion on the project solutions regarding network systems by the network operator. In any case, such conformity opinion must be acquired during the authorization process for the issuance of the final measure.

Moreover, the thresholds for EIA and EIA Screening in suitable areas were raised (to 25 MW and 12 MW, respectively), as well as the threshold for PAS access in suitable areas (up to 12 MW).

Finally, art. 12-bis of the Decree Law amends the legislation on the disposal of photovoltaic panels (Legislative Decree No. 49/2014), in that it excludes that the non-correspondence between the reported DEEE serial numbers and those present on-site may constitute a violation relevant for the provision of incentives and, therefore, sanctionable under art. 42 of Legislative Decree No. 28/2011, without prejudice to the obligation for the responsible party to communicate to the GSE any maintenance intervention involving the replacement of photovoltaic modules.

Also, on the same subject-matter, it is now provided that, with reference to the retention of the quota for end-of-life management of panels by the GSE, said quota shall be equal to twice the amount based on average costs of joining consortia or costs determined by collective systems.

For a complete analysis of the conversion bill text, click here.

This article is for information purposes only and is not, and cannot be intended as, a professional opinion on the topics dealt with. For any further information please contact  Piero Viganò, Giovanni Battista De Luca, Ernesto Rossi Scarpa Gregorj and Alessandro Vittoria.