Renewables: Regions cannot block new licences

No to moratoriums. Put a stop to the indiscriminate suspension of new licences for renewable energy generation plants. The Constitutional Court’s ruling 144, published yesterday, sets an important precedent regarding the delicate balance involved in the implementation of these projects: whilst the protection of the landscape must still be taken into account, individual local authorities cannot undermine the continuity of the authorisation system established by the national legislature.

The case stems from Law 31/2025 of Sardinia, which, in Article 1, provided for the suspension – pending the adoption of a subsequent regional regulation – of all authorisation procedures relating to plants powered by renewable energy (FER) located in areas not classified as suitable (i.e. areas subject to a simplified procedure). The suspension, however, also applied to authorisation applications submitted before the law came into force.

To conclude, the judges consider this provision to be unlawful, because incompatible ‘with the EU-based state principles aimed at ensuring the widespread deployment of renewable energy installations and the achievement of the energy transition objectives’. These objectives also bind the regions with special status in the exercise of their legislative powers.

According to the Court, the regional legislation contains ‘a moratorium that is not compatible with the relevant national regulatory framework’, since it ‘precludes the continuation of proceedings already initiated and the submission of new applications for the construction of renewable energy plants in areas not classified as suitable’. The Regions have the power to influence the siting of plants, but may not ‘compromise the continuity of the national authorisation system for renewable energy plants’. The objection that these restrictions are ‘of a temporary nature’ does not hold water. Time limits, in fact, do not preclude incompatibility with national and European principles.

In the judges’ view, classifying an area as unsuitable does not entail an absolute ban on the installation of such facilities, but merely excludes the application of simplified authorisation procedures . It is therefore necessary to follow the ordinary procedures. To make matters worse, the Sardinian legislation blocks all authorisations, ‘without taking into account the stage of the preliminary investigation, the investments already made or the varying levels of trust placed in economic operators’.