Setback for renewables: new installations down

They are followed by Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige, which have already reached 46% and 42% of the targets respectively. The ranking is closed by Valle d'Aosta, a region which is actually virtuous in terms of renewables (thanks to hydroelectric power it produces more than it consumes, covering 100% of its needs with green energy), but which in the last five years has installed just 11% of its entire 2030 quota. Renewable energy production in Trentino-Alto Adige and Basilicata, on the other hand, exceeds 45% of regional consumption.

"On average as a country between 2021 and 2025 we have installed 31% of the target set for 2030 (80 GW of new plants in a decade), so this means that in the next five years we should put on the groundthe remaining 69%," Barbabella adds. The phenomenon of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) is also growing, with Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia among the most active regions in 2024, having activated 31 and 28 respectively.

The picture, however, remains heterogeneous and local starting conditions, linked to the energy transition, may soon translate into different advantages (or disadvantages) in bills on a regional basis. As part of the reform of the European electricity market, Italia is in the process of moving from an electricity price formation mechanism based on the Single National Price (Pun) to a system of zonal prices, reflecting the real local costs for electricity production, e.g. according to the technologies used.

The de facto reform was introduced in Italy by the Ministerial Decree of 18 April 2024. Launched as of 1 January 2025, it should be fully implemented during 2026, with equalisation mechanisms that are however slowing down its effects. At the end of the path, therefore, those regions with a higher penetration of renewables will see the economic advantage of these technologies - among the cheapest to produce electricity - transferred directly into the bills of families and businesses. "The benefits," points out the scientific director of Italy for Climate, "should have already begun to be seen on 1 January 2026, but implementation is slow in coming. In the background weighs the risk of excessively high price inequalities.

So, while the current crisis urges Italia to invest in energy autonomy, regions play a crucial role. "They can act as a lever or a brake,' Barbabella explains, 'in the process of emancipation from dependence on fossil fuels. They have in their hands the main levers of the transition, from the authorisations for renewables to the new regulationson construction and transport'. The different starting point obliges territories to put in place different strategies to achieve autonomy: comparing the share of total consumption (GSE data to 2023) with that 'covered' by renewables, it turns out that production satisfies only 18% of the average national demand. It also emerges that Liguria, Emilia Romagna and Lazio are lagging behind, where the green energy produced covers less than 12% of consumption.