Because the decree that sets the criteria for photovoltaics and wind turbines brings activists and businesses into agreement (in criticism)

The suitable areas decree, awaited for years, should have clarified once and for all which areas are most suitable for hosting renewable energy plants.But environmentalists and businesses say it will only complicate things.Here's why

In everyone's hopes - politicians, associations, citizens - the government decree on areas suitable for renewables should have put an end to the "Nimby syndrome" once and for all.The acronym stands for «Not in my backyard» and is used when a local community protests against works of public interest carried out in their area of ​​residence.At least on a theoretical level, everyone (or almost everyone) seems to agree on the need to accelerate the installation of solar panels and wind turbines.Yet, when the area chosen for one of these projects is located a stone's throw from home, there are those who turn up their noses and oppose it.Sometimes for more than reasonable reasons, for example the lack of involvement on the part of the institutions or companies promoting the projects, other times because you simply want to put your own interests before the collective ones.

Missed target

However, there is one element that has contributed to encouraging media and judicial battles against some renewable energy plants:until a few months ago, Italy had never approved a decree on suitable areas, i.e. a document that established criteria and guidelines on how to identify the most suitable places to host wind turbines and photovoltaic panels.As of June 2024, the decree it was finally approved and came into force on July 2.It's a shame that its main objective, namely to clarify the areas to be allocated or not to renewables and to minimize disagreements between the government and local administrations, was only half achieved.The provision in fact establishes some general criteria, but entrusts the Regions with the task of ultimately establishing which areas are to be defined as suitable and which are not.The result is that local resistance to new wind and solar parks has not stopped, on the contrary.In Val di Cornia, in the Lower Maremma, citizens and farmers are on a war footing and they ask for a moratorium to new renewable projects.While in Sardinia, where an 18-month moratorium has already been approved throughout the regional territory, a collection of signatures has started for a popular initiative bill "against speculation in the renewables sector".

The strange alliance between environmentalists and industry

The guidelines established by the government provide rather generic criteria, such as the suggestion to give priority to built-up areas:industrial warehouses, car parks and «areas for industrial, artisanal, service and logistics purposes».The curious aspect is that the suitable areas decree has been criticized with the same harshness by both the main environmental associations and companies in the sector.The former accuse the government of giving in to disinformation campaigns who try to slow down the energy transition, the latter complain about lack of regulatory clarity and uncertainty for those who invest in renewables.«It rarely happens that we are in tune with the industry, but this time it happened», observes a Open Chiara Campione, head of the Climate unit for Greenpeace Italia.According to the association, the Meloni government's suitable areas decree "was born with the aim of expanding renewable energy but in fact creates more bureaucratic obstacles".

One of the most contested points is the decision to delegate the choice of suitable areas to the regions, which are more susceptible to local resistance and risk fueling, rather than reducing, NIMBY phenomena.«There is a lack of a coordinated strategy at a national level.This decree risks being a small test of what the government wants to do with differentiated autonomy", explains Campione.The aspect of the provision most criticized by the industry concerns the so-called "respect zones", i.e. the minimum distance that must separate a renewable plant and an asset or place subject to protection restrictions.The maximum limit set by the government for these buffer zones is 7 kilometers."It's the final blow to the development of renewable plants," Agostino Re Rebaudengo, president of Elettricità Futura, the branch of Confindustria that brings together Italian electricity companies, attacked without mincing words.«If the regions – he added – restrictively applied the distance of 7 kilometers from the protected assets for the new projects that will be presented from today onwards, almost the entire national territory would be unsuitable for renewables».

How to choose suitable areas

Now that the government guidelines have been defined, it is the regional administrations that are entrusted with the task of classifying their territory based on four typologies:

The Regions are given 180 days, starting from the publication of the decree in the Official Journal, to classify the areas of their territory based on the four categories.In case of failure to adopt the law, the Ministry of the Environment reserves the right to proceed with "appropriate initiatives for the purpose of exercising replacement powers".

The case of Sardinia

Among the first Regions to roll up their sleeves to obtain a mapping of suitable areas is Sardinia, which ended up at the center of controversy due to the decision of the governor Alessandra Todde to approve an 18-month moratorium on new renewable energy projects.According to the regional president, this is a necessary measure to combat speculation by energy companies.But companies in the sector and environmental associations do not agree:«Sardinia, a region that still largely depends on coal, places a moratorium on renewables and a few weeks later finds itself forced to request a state of emergency due to drought, a direct manifestation of the climate crisis.It's a paradox", observes Chiara Campione.In August, shortly after the decree came into force, the technical offices of the Sardinia Region got to work mapping the suitable areas, so as to sort out once and for all which areas can actually be used for energy production from renewable sources and which ones are not.«We will do our job to the end and we will not allow, unlike those who preceded us over the years, Sardinia to be trampled on and sold off again», Todde thundered in recent days.

The race for renewables, region by region

In addition to mapping suitable areas, the latest government decree also responds to another need:divide among the regions the 80 gigawatts of renewable power that Italy aims to install by 2030.In technical jargon it's called burden sharing, i.e. sharing the burden.In the provision drawn up by the Ministry of the Environment, Sicily is the region called upon to lead Italy's race towards renewables.The goal set for the region administered by Renato Schifani is 10.4 gigawatts of additional power by the end of the decade.Lombardy (8.7 GW) and Puglia (7.3 GW) follow on the podium.In general, it is above all in the southern regions and on the islands that new wind and solar plants will be concentrated, while the lesser contribution to the transition towards cleaner energy will come from the Aosta Valley, which hosts an area less suitable for renewables .