Suitable Areas, Rome Misuses the Already Useless Law
The Region announces that it intends to challenge the provisions, but without the urban planning-statutory norm it was obvious
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They didn't even wait for the start of the new year. Twenty-four hours before the New Year's Eve fireworks, on December 30, the National Technical Commission Pnrr-Pniec effectively "decapitated" at birth, even before the constitutional challenge, the law on "suitable areas" approved by the Regional Council on December 5, 2024. A very hard blow for a regional legislative system that from the beginning threatened to dissolve at the first gust of wind among the speculative storms that increasingly threaten the Island.
One-two
In its last meeting of the year, the highest national body for the approval of wind and photovoltaic projects, it delivered a massive “one-two punch” that floored the Sardinian Region and put two new projects into action, all of which, according to the recently approved regional regulations, fall within “illusory” “unsuitable areas”. Too bad, however, that the misleading definition of “unsuitable areas”, pursued by the Regional Council itself, was based on the assumption of the infamous Draghi who has constantly reiterated: even in “unsuitable areas”, rotating skyscrapers or endless silicon grids “made in China” can be built.
Facade prohibitions
The regional law also provided for "bans" on those areas, but these are, also in light of the latest ministerial pronouncement, ineffective and/or illegitimate bans given that the Draghi Decree, which the Sardinian law slavishly draws inspiration from, excludes them a priori. Non-stringent bans, totally unanchored by explicit constitutional rules as, instead, provided for by the Pratobello Law which bases its bans on the primary competence of the Region in the matter of "urban planning". For the National Commission, the verdict on the two projects approved at the end of the year, "Monte Nurra", in the Sassari countryside, and "Villasor" in the Medio Campidano countryside, constitutes a precedent destined to become a "principle", barring judicial reversals, which are in any case difficult to imagine given the consolidated jurisprudence on the matter.
Disapplication
A decision, that on the regional law, which in fact constitutes the most evident "disapplication" of that rule pompously proclaimed by the Region as a lifesaver, but which in light of the effects of these first days of the year is already proving to be a real waste of time, incapable of stopping any type of speculation. A "principle" of uselessness that will end up being applied to the hundreds of projects that have been lying on the shelves of the Ministry of the Environment for years awaiting approval. The risk is that of a real avalanche of authorizations with a pass that will not even wait for the constitutional challenge by the Government. Palazzo Chigi, in fact, has until February 5 to challenge the law on "suitable areas" before the Constitutional Court, but the "disapplication" by the National Commission already represents a more than well-founded alarm.
The national body that gave the green light to the two projects, a total of over 80 megawatts, over 200 hectares of photovoltaic panels, did not act in the dark. In fact, on Christmas Eve, last December 24, the General Directorate of the Environment wrote to the Ministry: " The Sardinia Region, in accordance with the provisions of the Decree of the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security of June 21, 2024, has identified the suitable areas and the suitable, unsuitable and ordinary surfaces for the installation of renewable energy sources and, at the same time, established the ban on building the systems in unsuitable areas. The intervention in question falls within the areas unsuitable for large-scale agrivoltaic systems exceeding 10 megawatts ."
On the “Villasor” project, the General Director of the Regional Department of the Environment himself communicated the consequences to the Ministry: « Therefore, in compliance with LR 20 of 5 December 2024 art. 1, paragraph 5 Annex B (Areas not suitable for the installation of agrivoltaic systems letter j), the undersigned Service expresses a negative opinion on the construction of the project for an agrivoltaic system proposed by the company Tiziano srl for the production of energy from solar sources called “Villasor", with a power of 41.84 megawatts ». The same goes for the project in northern Sardinia, "Monte Nurra", with a power of 42.096 megawatts, to be built in the Municipality of Sassari.
Draghi teaches
According to the law, the Region rejects them: " they fall within the unsuitable areas". The Ministry, however, does not even think about it. The projects falling within the "unsuitable areas " are approved without a fight, confirming the deception of the "suitable" and "unsuitable areas". The Sardinian Region, essentially, fully embracing the Draghi Decree (after all, the current President of the Region in that government had the delegation for the Energy Transition Committee), has based its regional legislation on article 20 paragraph 7 of the "infamous" legislative provision of the banker of Europe.
Scam suitable areas
A rule that on a substantial level has turned out to be a scam: " Areas not included among the suitable areas cannot be declared unsuitable " - provides the Draghi Decree. In practice, if that rule is implemented, the result is obvious: all areas, albeit with different procedures, are to be considered suitable. In Viale Trento they immediately cried outrage: " The Region will take action in all competent administrative and jurisdictional offices to oppose and contest these decisions. The opinions were adopted despite the certified incompatibility of the projects, both with the regional regulatory framework and with the landscape, environmental and cultural values that regional legislation defends ". Too bad, however, that the rules referred to were based precisely on those provisions that allowed exactly what the national commission approved. The prohibitions of the Sardinian law, in application of the "fraud" principle on suitable areas, instantly became waste paper. To stop the invasion, albeit belatedly, only the “Pratobello” law remained, the only one based on the primary competences of the Sardinian Statute, the only ones of constitutional rank, superior to the Draghi decree. Sardinia is already at the last call.
