Enel Green Power CEO Salvatore Bernabei has called for an urgent overhaul of Italy's renewable energy permitting system, arguing that roughly 150 GW of shovel-ready renewable projects are trapped in bureaucratic limbo—enough capacity to transform the nation's energy security within years. Speaking at the Forum in Masseria event in Manduria, Puglia, Bernabei framed the challenge as both a policy bottleneck and an economic opportunity: unlock the pipeline, and Italy could drastically cut its reliance on imported fossil fuels while turning regions like Puglia into national models for sustainable growth.
Why This Matters
• 150 GW stuck in permitting: Equivalent to nearly double Italy's current renewable capacity, these projects await authorization amid drawn-out environmental reviews and interagency conflicts.
• €23 billion EU-approved fund: Italy's FER X decree supports 37.15 GW of new renewables through long-term contracts, with first auctions set for autumn 2026.
• Puglia leads with 8 GW installed: The southern region already generates 65.3% of its electricity from renewables and exports surplus power to the rest of Italy.
• Permitting takes 22–43 months: Current timelines stretch significantly, with regulatory approval rates below 20% in many categories.
What This Means for Your Energy Bills
The backlog directly affects household electricity costs. When projects languish in permitting for years, renewable capacity doesn't come online to displace expensive gas-fired generation. The result: higher wholesale prices and increased reliance on imported natural gas. Faster approvals mean more competition in energy markets and downward pressure on your bills over the next two to three years.
For property owners and small businesses: if you own a rooftop exceeding 100 m² or unused agricultural land, you may qualify for direct tariffs under 1 MW, bypassing competitive bidding and cutting through red tape faster than utility-scale projects.
The 150 GW Bottleneck
Italy's renewable sector finds itself in a paradoxical position. On paper, developers have proposed wind, solar, hydro, and biogas installations totaling approximately 150 GW—a figure that dwarfs the country's current installed renewable capacity. Yet according to industry reports, 1,781 renewable projects remain under evaluation, with roughly 70% stalled somewhere between technical verifications, environmental impact assessments (VIA—mandatory reviews of environmental effects), and multi-ministry conferences.
The result is a colossal backlog that consumes investor confidence and delays the cash flow communities need to modernize aging grids.
Bernabei identified permitting acceleration as the linchpin for converting latent capacity into operational megawatts. "The technology is available, the capital is available, and the projects are designed," he said. "What's missing is the speed to move from paper to construction." For residents and businesses, that delay translates into continued exposure to volatile natural-gas prices and dependence on imports from geopolitically uncertain suppliers.
What the FER X Decree Changes
In early June 2026, the European Commission approved Italy's FER X state-aid program, earmarking €23 billion to incentivize utility-scale renewables. The scheme targets 37.15 GW of new capacity and is structured around competitive auctions for bidirectional contracts-for-difference lasting 20 years.
Developers who win auction slots receive a guaranteed reference price for electricity sold into the grid. If wholesale prices exceed the strike price, operators pay the surplus back to the state, creating a self-balancing fiscal mechanism.
Within the 37.15 GW envelope, capacity is allocated across solar photovoltaic, onshore wind, hydropower, biogas, and hybrid systems. Small-scale plants below 1 MW can bypass competitive auctions entirely and access a direct feed-in tariff—a provision designed to encourage distributed generation on factory rooftops, farm buildings, and municipal facilities.
The first auction rounds are scheduled for autumn 2026, with additional tranches rolling out in 2027. A separate funding call for self-consumption projects—primarily rooftop solar and thermal-photovoltaic arrays—underscores parallel efforts to decentralize supply.
Permitting Reality: Months in the Maze
Despite the influx of funding, Italy's authorization framework remains one of the most convoluted in Europe. Current wait times extend significantly, and success rates hover well below 20%. The environmental review stage alone often stretches beyond a year, as regional environment departments, the Ministry of Culture, local superintendencies, and grid operators cycle through overlapping reviews.
A particular flashpoint is the Ministry of Culture's authority over sites near historical or landscape-protected zones. When ministries deadlock, the decision escalates to the Council of Ministers under an "overcoming dissent" procedure—a measure intended to expedite resolution but which in practice has added months to timelines.
Compounding the administrative challenge is the unresolved disagreement between Rome and regional governments over "acceleration zones" mandated by the RED3 directive. Italian regions are working to finalize those maps, yet disagreements over agricultural land, protected landscapes, and municipal prerogatives have delayed implementation.
How Italy Plans to Unblock the Queue
The Legislative Decree 190/2024, known as the Renewable Energy Consolidation Act, consolidates overlapping rules into three authorization tiers: streamlined procedures for micro-installations, simplified authorization procedures for mid-sized plants, and unified authorization for utility-scale farms. The decree also includes a tacit-consent rule: if authorities fail to issue a decision within statutory deadlines, the permit is deemed granted.
To ease the workload on regional review commissions, the government is channeling EU Technical Support Instrument funding into digital case-management platforms and staff training. Additional proposals circulating in Parliament include mandating solar canopies over parking lots exceeding 1,500 m² and permitting ground-mount arrays on non-productive agricultural land.
Regional administrations that meet decarbonization milestones may qualify for performance-linked fiscal transfers. Meanwhile, industry surveys indicate that developer applications have slowed significantly in early 2026—a warning that procedural reform must move faster than investor patience erodes.
Puglia as the National Prototype
Puglia exemplifies what streamlined policy and natural endowments can achieve. With 8 GW of renewables online, the region accounts for a substantial share of Italy's renewable capacity. In 2023, renewables supplied 65.3% of Puglia's electricity consumption, and the region routinely exports surplus power northward.
Bernabei pointed to Puglia's collaborative governance model, which balances developer interests, municipal revenues, and landscape protection through early stakeholder dialogues. The region also promotes Renewable Energy Communities (CER) and runs programs that support low-income households installing solar and other distributed generation systems.
Puglia's Regional Energy and Environment Plan (PEAR) explicitly steers large-scale solar and wind developments toward industrial brownfields and planned production zones, minimizing visual impact on agricultural districts. Proposed legislation would further restrict ground-mount photovoltaics on prime farmland while permitting rooftop arrays on greenhouse structures, threading the needle between energy ambition and rural heritage.
What Happens Next
Italy's climate commitments require adding substantial renewable capacity by 2030. The FER X decree aims to unlock a significant portion of planned projects, but only if permitting timelines compress dramatically.
The timeline is tight: Every quarter lost to bureaucratic friction pushes deployment closer to the deadline. If Rome can harmonize regional approval processes and implement procedural reforms by year-end, the 150 GW pipeline becomes a realistic medium-term pathway. If not, capital will migrate to jurisdictions where approvals arrive faster—and Italy's energy independence will remain constrained.
For households and businesses, the stakes are clear: faster permitting means more renewable capacity, less dependence on expensive gas imports, and lower electricity costs. The policy pieces are in place. Now it's about execution.
