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Italian power groups encounter federal government on photovoltaic panel curbs

Italian power groups are at loggerheads with the federal government over brand-new limitations on the installation of solar panels, which they say would put Rome's. decarbonisation objectives at danger and boost electrical energy costs.

The nation's rightwing union on Monday authorized a ban. on photovoltaic systems with modules placed on the ground in. areas classified as agricultural land.

Elettricità Futura - the lobby representing the nation's. main power groups consisting of state-controlled utility Enel. , A2A and Edison - stated the limitation. would increase costs to establish new solar projects, complicate. the license process and jeopardise Italy's green goals.

The brand-new regulation could also cause a reliability issue. for our country in handling companies which have prepared. tasks worth up to 300 billion euros ($ 323 billion) to make. the setups essential to reach the 2030 targets, the. lobby said in a declaration released late on Tuesday.

In its draft plan for energy and climate (PNIEC) the. government has vowed to increase energy produced by solar. farms by 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 as part of its switch out of. fossil fuels.

Elettricità Futura said this new rule would exacerbate the. lack of large solar farms, a concern that keeps the expense of. renewable resource high in Italy.

Electrical power produced by utility-scale photovoltaic systems. costs a third of the electrical energy produced by property. rooftop photovoltaic systems, it stated.

Agricultural lobbies-- key supporters of Prime Minister. Giorgia Meloni's government-- have actually long called for limitations. to the panels, saying they were incompatible with cultivation. Farming and photovoltaic can exist together, said Italia. Solare, the Italian association for the solar sector, adding 1%. of empty agricultural land would be sufficient to understand half of. the 50 GW required for Italy to meet 2030 targets, with the rest. originating from rooftops.

(source: Reuters)