Italy's cabinet rejects 468 MW of solar and agrivoltaics, approves 272 MW
Victoria Shinder2 min readItaly's Council of Ministers has turned down ten solar and agrivoltaic projects with a combined capacity of about 468 MW and approved five totalling 272 MW, pv magazine reported on 30 October. The decisions were taken at the cabinet meeting of 28 October and cover sites in Puglia, Lazio, Basilicata and Molise.
The government said it had "considered the protection of the landscape and cultural heritage to prevail over the increase in energy production from renewable sources" in rejecting the projects.
All five approvals are agrivoltaic plants in Puglia, where solar panels are combined with continued farming. The largest is a 76.77 MW plant between Foggia and Lucera proposed by Solar Capital 1; the others are X-Elio's 63.62 MW Ordona project, the 53.84 MW CSPV Manfredonia plant, the 45.6 MW Aragonite plant of Pacifico Energy Partners and the 32 MW La Feudale project.
The largest refusal is Solar Italy XV's 113 MW Campo Agrosolare Valle in Ascoli Satriano, also in Puglia. Lazio accounts for five of the ten rejections, including the 77.69 MW Querciolare plant in Montalto di Castro and the 57 MW EG Gemma plant in Proceno. The remaining refusals are a 20 MW agrivoltaic plant in Basilicata and a 10.13 MW plant in Molise. Pacifico Energy Partners had one project approved and one, the 29.36 MW Solar Blooms plant in Civita Castellana, rejected.
What it means
The pattern is worth reading as a map. Puglia, where agrivoltaic designs dominate, got all the approvals, while Lazio, with its historic landscapes north of Rome, took half the refusals. For developers, the label "agrivoltaic" was not enough on its own: four of the ten rejected projects carried it. Each refused megawatt also delays the solar build-out Italy needs to meet its 2030 targets, which makes the cabinet route a recurring risk in project planning.