National Incentives

In recent years, there has been significant evolution in the energy policies of the Italian government, driven by awareness of the need to diminish the country's nearly total reliance on imported fossil fuels and by mandates of the European Community with regard to energy sector reform.
Liberalization measures include a requirement for the electricity sector to provide a growing percentage of its production from renewable sources (2,35% in 2006, with a growth factor of 0.35%/yr for 2007-2009 - the EC objective is 25% by 2010) and a requirement for energy distributors to diminish consumption by 2.9Mtep/yr by 2009).

These mandates, in turn, have led to the creation of a number of important incentives for REES, including: green and white certificates, market-based tradable certificates for renewable energy and energy efficiency, respectively; the conto energia, a special tariff for photovoltaic energy sold to the grid; and a significant number of regional incentives stemming from the devolution of responsibility for energy planning to the regions.