Authorising just 50 per cent of pending renewable energy plant applications would be enough to achieve the transition. But beware of oversimplifying.
If just 50 per cent of renewable energy projects currently on paper were to reach the end of their authorisation process, Italy would already have achieved the much sought-after energy transition. The pending applications for the installation of photovoltaic and wind energy plants would, in short, be enough to meet our country's clean energy needs without having to rely on nuclear energy or natural gas.
According to Legambiente, the author of the report Scacco matto alle rinnovabili, the main obstacles to the realisation of these projects lie in cumbersome bureaucracy, but also in blockages by local and regional administrations, the ministry of culture and the heritage superintendencies. Local committees are also said to be standing in the way.
The reality, however, risks being more complicated than that. Bureaucracy aside, the energy transition also needs to listen to the voices of those who oppose the risk of energy speculation.
Let us start with the targets the Italian government has set on the decarbonisation of the energy sector: if we want to meet the European targets — which, let us recall, require a 55 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 — at least 70 gigawatts of capacity from renewable sources must be installed by 2030.
The current pace is, however, too slow: in Italy, over the past seven years, the annual installation rate has fluctuated between 800 and 1,000 megawatts (1 gigawatt) of capacity. At this rate, we will not reach the targets set before 2100. If instead the aim is to complete the energy transition within the established timeframe, Italy must install 9 gigawatts every year between now and 2030.
Since 2018, in particular, requests for connection to the electricity grid managed by Terna from renewable energy plants have grown by 297 per cent. By the end of 2020, pending requests had cumulatively reached 110 gigawatts, to which a further 6 gigawatts for storage facilities must be added — well above the 70 gigawatts Italy needs. Yet despite Terna having given the green light to 85 per cent of these requests, only 20 per cent subsequently became actual plants.
This "bottleneck" has various origins, which Legambiente summarises in its latest report, focusing on 20 emblematic cases. One of these concerns the tortuous affair of the solidarity energy community on the outskirts of Naples East, which encountered obstacles despite involving a 50-kilowatt plant built on a rooftop in a peripheral area.
"Our stumbling block is probably due to a lack of awareness on the part of local offices of a ministerial circular that allows the installation of photovoltaic systems not visible from the ground without authorisation," explains Mariateresa Imparato, Legambiente Campania coordinator. In practice, within the often inextricable tangle of laws and regulations governing the matter, there is one that would allow the free installation, without authorisations, of photovoltaic systems not visible from below (Presidential Decree no. 31 of 2017) — and yet it is not known, let alone applied, by the competent offices. "For this reason, our solidarity energy community was established in February, the plant was completed at the end of March, but it only came into operation just before the Christmas holidays."
The photovoltaic plant project in Naples East did not even require landscape authorisation, as the panels are only visible by drone. "What impact are we talking about? In a neighbourhood where there are silos for hydrocarbon storage, a landscape impact assessment is demanded for invisible solar panels. There are chimneys from old factories awaiting remediation: it is a contaminated area of national interest. Fortunately, the region unblocked our application by clarifying everything," Imparato concludes.
But for Legambiente it is above all wind energy that suffers most from the slowness of Italian bureaucracy: of the 20 gigawatts of projects for which applications have been submitted since 2017, 91 per cent are still at the initial stage of the process. Not only bureaucracy, but also blockages due to landscape constraints imposed by municipal and regional administrations and by the ministry of culture and the heritage superintendencies: "There is no doubt about the primary importance of these public bodies, but faced with an environmental emergency of global proportions and no return, perhaps a proactive and constructive role would be expected, aimed at resolving any critical issues, rather than placing vetoes and blockages with no solution," writes Legambiente in its report.
To the authorisation problems are added those linked to local opposition movements: Legambiente refers to Nimby (not in my back yard) or Nimto (not in my terms of office) processes. "Not all local objections are phenomena of this kind," the association points out, "indeed, the watchdog role of citizens and administrations should be highlighted, precisely to prevent poorly conceived projects from going ahead. But the energy transition has placed, and will continue to place, a profound transformation of local areas at its centre. It is impossible to achieve the net-zero emissions target without going through these."
Rather, for Legambiente it becomes crucial to launch important information campaigns, participation initiatives and listening processes. Perhaps in this way opposition would not arise to offshore wind energy — that is, in waters far from the coast: a wind farm proposed off the port of Taranto, comprising 10 wind turbines each of 3 megawatts, after 12 years of complex authorisation proceedings — including a block by the heritage superintendency over the visual impact generated in front of the former Ilva steelworks in Taranto — has still not seen the light of day.
Legambiente also cites the opposition of local committees to the proposed offshore wind farm at Rimini, comprising 59 wind turbines with a total capacity of 330 megawatts, to be built in a stretch of sea between 10 and 22 kilometres off the coast of Rimini and Cattolica. After securing a downsizing of the project, protests and opposition at institutional roundtables continued, with the project being labelled an "eco-monster", too invasive — despite the current skyline being dotted with oil platforms.
In short, rules and procedures push the average time to obtain authorisation for a wind farm to five years, against the six months stipulated by legislation. Endless timescales for businesses, but also for decarbonisation, which needs a regulatory framework built on clear, simple rules to apply.
"One must not rule out a priori the fact that, being renewable energy projects, these are not exempt from land consumption or the risk of disfiguring landscapes," explains Alessandro Mortarino, spokesperson and coordinator of the national forum Salviamo il Paesaggio. "For example, there are cases of energy speculation, such as the one currently besieging Tuscia: we are faced with no fewer than 51 photovoltaic field projects submitted, partly approved and only a tiny fraction rejected over a few years, covering a combined total of over 2,100 hectares of agricultural land and woodland, sometimes leased, in other cases expropriated, with no guarantee whatsoever that at least one fossil-fuel power station will be shut down."
"According to data collected by Paolo Pileri of the Polytechnic of Milan," Mortarino continues, "the Pnrr-Pniec projects (Piano nazionale integrato per l'energia e il clima, editor's note) could, in under six years, put approximately 15 gigawatts of solar capacity in the ground, for which between 10,000 and 18,000 hectares of agricultural land may be needed, representing a 50 per cent increase in annual land consumption. But soil is not a renewable and reproducible resource, and I believe we should consider these projections with the utmost care. Before it is too late to regret an irreversible harm to our entire society. The young people of Coldiretti have already understood this and are calling unequivocally for the protection of agricultural land," the coordinator concludes.
In short, the debate is complex and must not be oversimplified at all costs. Achieving the energy transition is the priority if we wish to continue enjoying our landscape. At the same time, there is a need to listen to local needs and involve communities. Everyone is loudly calling for a unified ministerial text that sets fixed timescales for procedures and is capable of responding to the demands of the transition by configuring the harmonious integration of renewable sources into the landscape. But this text does not yet exist.