Industry body slams Italian govt over new solar limitations

A day after the Italian right-wing coalition passed rules to limit solar panel installations on agricultural land, electricity sector association Elettricita Futura warned that this move would risk the country’s decarbonisation goals.

The industry body said in a statement that the new rules, which need to be cleared by both houses of Parliament, could make the development and construction of ground-mounted solar power plants more costly, affect other government measures such as those linked to the development of green hydrogen, and even hurt energy-intensive companies that would otherwise seek to secure low-cost energy supply under long-term contracts.

Just recently, Italy, as part of the G7, committed to tripling its installed renewable power generation capacity by 2030. According to the lobby, the country currently has 66 GW of renewables installed which means it would have to reach 198 GW within seven years. It also calculates that to meet this target, Italy would need to rely on less than 1% of its “non-valuable” agricultural land.

Elettricita Futura stressed that solar PV and agriculture are not in opposition and added that photovoltaics could even provide an important additional source of income for agricultural entrepreneurs.

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