On Friday 10 November, the European Commission announced that it had authorised, under EU State aid rules, an Italian scheme worth €1.7 billion to support the construction and operation of new agro-voltaic power plants with a total capacity of 1.04 GW and an electricity production of at least 1,300 GWh/year in Italy.
This scheme will be partly financed through the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’, the main instrument of the Next Generation EU recovery package.
Aid will be available until 31 December 2024 to agricultural producers, whose activities must begin before 30 June 2026, in the form of investment grants. The budget for this aid package is €1.1 billion. This will cover up to 40% of eligible investment costs. On the other hand, aid will take the form of incentive tariffs under two-way contracts for differences. The budget for this aid package is estimated at €560 million. These incentive tariffs will support projects during their operational phase for a period of 20 years.
The aid was deemed to comply with the European rules on State aid and, more specifically, with Article 107(3)(c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the 2022 guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)