Italy accelerates its energy transition with new renewable projects totaling 570 MW in environmental evaluation during the first days of December 2024, according to an analysis by Energía Estratégica España based on data from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE).

While 100 MW have been dismissed due to environmental impact reasons, highlighting both the potential and challenges of renewable expansion in the country.

The wind sector leads with 370.1 MW processed from seven projects, including the “S.A.P. Wind Farm” with 108 MW of capacity, promoted by Energy Total Capital S.A.P. Wind Farm S.r.l.

Agrivoltaics also shows significant progress with innovative projects combining energy and biodiversity, totaling 135.2 MW in environmental processing so far in December, from three installations.

Meanwhile, photovoltaics add 64.7 MW in environmental processing this month, coming from three projects.

Two agrivoltaic parks were dismissed as they received a negative environmental impact assessment. One is a 14.4 MW installation promoted by CCEN Gracciano S.r.l., and the other is a 90 MW project promoted by Edis S.r.l., which planned to integrate a 50 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) and a 20 MW green hydrogen facility.

This highlights the regulatory challenges and the need for designs that balance technical feasibility with environmental compatibility.

It is worth noting that in November, 1.2 GW of renewable projects advanced in environmental processing, with wind energy also leading with 553 MW.

While the sector celebrates the development of new projects, the Italian energy market faces a structural issue of grid saturation, with more than 300 GW of pending connection requests. According to the operator Terna, this context requires urgent reforms in transmission infrastructure to avoid bottlenecks that hinder the development of new renewable projects.

Key players and featured projects

The analysis reveals that Energy Total Capital S.A.P. Wind Farm S.r.l. leads the project advancements with the previously mentioned 108 MW wind farm.

However, companies such as CCEN MATERA S.R.L. and GOBETTO SOLAR Srl are advancing with agrivoltaic plants of 59.7 MW and 55.6 MW, respectively. Alvania S.r.l. and Blue Stone Renewable I S.r.l. are also making progress with 49.5 MW of wind farm capacity. Additionally, major companies like RWE and Canadian Solar stand out.

List of projects