A court in Italy has partially cancelled the suitable areas decree (aree idonee in Italian) for ground-mounted renewables, while questioning the legality of the agricultural decree law.
Issued in June 2024 by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, the decree contained regulations for the identification of surfaces and areas suitable for the installation of renewable energy systems, while attributing to local regions the legislative competence to set their own rules.
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The ruling N. 09155/2025 (in Italian), from the Regional Administrative Court in Lazio (TAR Lazio), dismissed the legality of delegating to the regions due to “the unconstitutionality, under multiple aspects, of the Ministerial Decree of 21 June 2024, also due to excessive delegation,” as written in the ruling.
One example given by the ruling is the provision in article seven, paragraph three of the decree, which provides regions with the authority to “establish a buffer zone from the perimeter of the assets subject to protection of a width that varies depending on the type of plant, proportionate to the asset subject to protection, up to a maximum of 7km.”
Patrizio Donati, co-founder and managing director at independent power producer Terrawatt, said to PV Tech: “The judgement is the first really good news in some time for the Italian renewables industry.
“Essentially, it enforces the supremacy of the current national permitting legislation and removes from the regions the power to set their own rules, which might be more restrictive than the national ones. And in fact, the few regions that have issued their aree idonee have been more restrictive.”
Another aspect that was upheld in the ruling was the lack of a transitional legislation that safeguarded the authorisation procedures in progress at the time the regional laws were published.
“The absence of transitional legislation, in fact, would conflict with the protection of trust and with the principle of legal certainty, with a potential negative impact on the investments already made by the applicant companies,” wrote the ruling.
AgriPV ban questioned
Donati adds that the TAR Lazio also called into question the constitutionality of the DL Agricoltura from May 2024, which saw the ban of ground-mounted solar PV installations on agricultural land.
Earlier this year, Donati highlighted that the legislative uncertainty the industry faced in Italy in 2024 and this year would be among the biggest hurdles for solar PV. This latest decision from TAR Lazio offers some security for the solar industry in Italy, explained Donati.
“In the short and medium term, we expect this to enable investors to move with more security on the Italian landscape, and be able to commit to investment decisions without fear of their project being overturned due to regional legislation changes. In addition, this is a strong step towards enabling Italy to meet its 2030 targets, especially if the DL Agricoltura gets overturned,” added Donati.
The agricultural decree law will need to be reviewed by the government, which will make a decision on what changes to implement in the next 60 days, said Donati.
Italy adds 1.4GW solar PV in Q1 2025
In other Italian news, the country added 1.4GW of solar PV in the first three months of 2025, according to trade association Italia Solare. This is a 16% decrease compared to the same period a year ago.
Nearly half of the capacity installed in the first quarter of 2025 came from utility-scale, with 684MW. This is an increase from Q1 2024, when utility-scale added 553MW of solar PV, despite adding a nearly similar number of PV plants, showing that the average size of projects increased year on year, said Italia Solare.
Overall, Italy has installed 38.5GW of solar PV, with the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment accounting for the most capacity with 45%, or 17.5GW. It is followed by the residential solar market, which represents 28%, or 10.7GW, while utility-scale represents the remaining 27%, or 10.3GW.
According to the Italian trade association, the residential solar market seems to have found stability after the end of the Superbonus scheme, which offered a 110% tax credit for residential solar installations. Since August 2024, the segment has added between 100-120MW of solar PV per month, which is still lower than the peak of the segment, boosted by the Superbonus, when in 2023 it was adding 200MW per month.
“However, demand remains solid and is most likely due to the reduction in system costs, increased user awareness of the advantages of photovoltaics and, consequently, growing attention to self-consumption,” said Italia Solare.
Region-wise, Lazio – in the centre of the country – has added the most capacity in Q1 2025, with 293MW, followed by the northern region of Lombardy with 162MW and the southern region of Apulia with 140MW.
