Law Decree Environment - Priority in the EIA procedures for certain RES projects
Emanuele Bottazzi
Avvocato - Managing Associate Deloitte Legal Italy - Energy & Public Law
On last 10 October, the Council of Ministers has approved the so called “Law Decree Environment” concerning “Urgent measures for the environmental protection, the rationalization of the procedures of environmental assessment and authorization, the promotion of circular economy, the implementation of intervention regarding restoration of polluted sites and hydrogeological disruption”.
Regarding renewable energies, the following projects are considered as priority in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures under national competence:
i)??????? the onshore photovoltaic and agrivoltaic projects with a power capacity of 50 MW at least and the onshore wind projects with a power capacity of 70 MW at least;
ii)????? the green or renewable hydrogen projects and the connected renewable energy plants;
iii)???? the interventions of variation, even substantial, for the refurbishment, repowering or total reconstruction of photovoltaic and wind plants.
The assigned priority means that a specific quota (not higher than the 3/5) of the EIA procedures discussions (under the competence of the Technical Committees VIA-VAS and PNRR-PNIEC) is dedicated to such projects: their exam is defined in a chronological order, considering the notice to the applicant about the publication in the MASE web site of all documents for the EIA procedure of a project.
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This priority has been given to speed up the EIA procedures of such projects.
The priority has been identified waiting for a MASE decree that will identify the projects with priority based on specific criteria such as the technical and economic sustainability of the projects and the contribution to achieve the decarbonization targets under PNIEC and the importance for the implementation of the PNRR investments.
Finally, as important novelty the Law Decree Environment established that the screening EIA act has a validity not lower than five (5) years considering the timelines for the realization of the projects, the authorization procedures needed, and the application filed. After the expiry of the screening EIA act without the realization of the project, the screening EIA procedure shall be performed again, save for an extension act issued upon a specific request with detailed reasons filed by the applicant.
We wait for the publication of the Law Decree Environment in the Official Journal!!