The total surface area in hectares of our country is 30,207,300 ha, of which approximately 12.8 million are cultivable and used in part by the agricultural sector which, however, does not exploit 1,219,593 of them (data from the National Institute of Agricultural Economics). Even if we were to double the power on the ground we are talking about another 17 thousand ha out of 1 million unused. «In the face of these numbers - declares Veronica Pitea, President of ACEPER (Association of Consumers and Producers of Renewable Energy) , the association that brings together 10,000 energy production plants from renewable sources, equal to over 7,000 members for a total installed power which exceeds 2 GWp - understanding the Government's position and trying to justify such a clear closure on the installation of ground-based systems, given the use of the land and given the installations we have done over the years, becomes really difficult. We are not taking into account the fact that the 16,400 ha are not even all agricultural but also industrial land."
Moving on to the numerical analysis of the plants by sector of activity, it can be seen that: approximately 1,355,687 ha are residential plants, 45,560 are agricultural and 82,488 are industrial plants. «Now we have clear objectives to achieve by 2030 and we could think of succeeding only if the industrial sector began to lower its consumption which today accounts for 44% of total consumption at a national level; this 44% translates into approximately 125.4 TWh (terawatt hours) and produces, again according to GSE data, 15,608 GWh (gigawatt hours), or 15.6 TWh. How can we reduce consumption if we don't encourage industry and then also block land-based installations?" asks Pitea.
«As President of ACEPER and representing Italy, I have just attended the "Financial Inclusion Conference" of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF), affiliate partner of the G20, in one of the most prestigious venues in the world with a history of over 300 years, the London Stock Exchange, the main European financial center, among the first in the world in terms of capitalisation. Unfortunately, however, the idea that the world is getting of our country is that we are unstable at a government level and it must be said that the latest move on renewables does not help us, in terms of investments we are increasingly less interesting for foreign funds", he continues the President of ACEPER.
The concern also arises from the use of European funds: the Department for Cohesion Policies, as of 31 December 2023, said that out of the 74 billion granted we activated projects for less than 6.5% and, even more worryingly, we spent less of 0.75% of the total.
«In all of this, as far as we are concerned, we are not, despite the numbers asking for it, giving any type of incentive to the industry to be able to reduce the costs and use of energy produced from fossil sources. It would be easy to include a tax credit for virtuous and productive companies, photovoltaics must become an instrumental good. At this point we would like to ask two questions. One directly to MASAF: why, given the data that the GSE provides us on the ground installations and given the lack of use of the land, is it so determined to block the ground installations? And the second question goes to the MISE: why are there no important financial measures for productive SMEs that can allow Italy to become truly green, given that we have the funds to do so?", concludes Veronica Pitea, President of ACEPER.
