Renewables, Legambiente: 'Abrupt slowdown in Italy in 2025. Installed plants and power slowing down"

In Italy, 2025 is a year with a minus sign for renewables. On the occasion of the 18th edition of the QualEnergia Forum, Legambiente takes a snapshot: the energy revolution from clean sources, after years of growth marked to date by the entry into operation of 2,074,971 plants for the production of electricity from renewable sources (source: Terna), registers an abrupt slowdown this year: the number of plants is falling, the Renewable Energy Communities are increasingly in trouble, and Italy is confirmed to be behind the 2030 objective of the decree on eligible areas.

In the first ten months of 2025, from January to October 2025, the number of renewable plants built in Italy dropped by 27% compared to the same period in 2024. A total of 181,768 have been realised since the beginning of the year in Italy. This is 67,231 fewer installations than the 248,999 realised from January to October 2024. With regard to installed power, new installations in 2025 stop at 5,400 MW (of which 4,813 MW from solar photovoltaic and 444 MW from wind power), 642 MW less than in the first 10 months of 2024, thus registering a reduction of 10.6% and 2,080 MW less than last year's annual total. A minus sign also for electricity production, which stood at 98,712 GWh, down 2.5% compared to the same period in 2024, a consequence of a major drop in hydro production with minus 22.8%.

This is an overall setback that interrupts the positive results of recent years: in the first months of 2023, energy production had increased by +13.6% over the previous year; in 2024, it was +23.9% over 2023, with a total of 101,198 GWh/y of clean energy, equal to 32.4% of the country's total consumption - 312,285 GWh/y - setting an all-time record. In terms of installed power, on the other hand, in 2024, total installations were 36.3% higher than in the same period of 2023 (+1,608 MW), while between 2023 and 2022, growth was as high as 88.3% (+2,079 MW). The only good news in 2025 concerns solar photovoltaics. Although it recorded a contraction in both installed power (-12.2%) and the number of plants (-27%), according to Legambiente, the increase in production, compared to 2024, of +24.3% is a hopeful sign that the photovoltaic plants installed are on average larger and more efficient.

In addition to the abrupt slowdown in renewables, the environmental association also notes, in 2025 there will also be a worrying slowdown in RES. Out of the 5 GW of incentivable power to be realised by 2027, requested by the Cer Decree, Italy, Legambiente and Kyoto Club denounce, has only realised 115 MW in the last five years. We are talking about 1,127 realities in all, with Lombardy with 181 energy configurations, Piedmont with 143 and Sicily with 135 self-consumption systems, the three regions with the most Cer. An overall number, that of 1,127 realities, which is nevertheless small for Italy. Bureaucracy, tax obstacles, the usual delays in authorisations, refusals by the local distributor, and even the government's cuts which, recent news, have drastically reduced the Pnrr funds for Cer from 2.2 billion euro to 795.5 million. Another red alert is the fact that many regional calls for tenders are deserted, as happened, for example, in Sicily: we are talking about a 61.5 million euro call for tenders, launched in March 2025 with the aim of providing non-repayable financing of up to 40% and encouraging the birth of about 150 new RES with plants up to 1 MW, which went completely deserted. On the contrary, where the calls for tenders work, the results are tangible. For example, in Emilia-Romagna, through two calls for tenders, contributions of around 3.5 million euro were granted, which led to the establishment of 71 new energy configurations.