The Italian process, in plain English
Every market has its own vocabulary, and Italy has more of it than most. These are the terms that come up in the first hour of any conversation about an Italian greenfield project, with what each one actually means for a buyer.
Authorisation
Since the consolidating decree of 2024 there are three routes rather than four. Which one applies depends on the size of the plant, where it sits and what constraints touch the land.
Three routes, one project. Which of them applies is not a choice the developer makes: it follows from the size, the location and the constraints on the land.
| Testo Unico FER D.Lgs. 190/2024 | The consolidating decree that rewrote how renewable plants are authorised in Italy, in force since the end of 2024. It reduced the authorisation regimes to three and is now the reference text. |
|---|---|
| Attività libera | The lightest regime: no consent needed, only a communication. It does not apply where the land carries landscape, cultural or protected-area constraints. |
| PAS Procedura Abilitativa Semplificata | A simplified route filed with the municipality. It is available only if the applicant already has the land at their disposal and the project is compatible with the planning instruments in force. Otherwise the project falls into the single authorisation. |
| Autorizzazione Unica AU | The single authorisation, used for larger or more complex projects. It gathers the consents of every authority involved in one proceeding and one final decision. |
| SUER and modello unico | The national platform and the standard application forms for PAS and AU, adopted by ministerial decree at the end of 2025. Expect the filing itself to be electronic and standardised. |
| VIA and PAUR | Environmental impact assessment, and the single regional decision that wraps it together with the other consents where an assessment is required. |
| Aree idonee suitable areas | Areas where an accelerated route applies. Being outside them is not a prohibition: the Constitutional Court held in 2026 that regions cannot block applications simply because a site is not classified as suitable. Outside those areas, the ordinary procedure applies, case by case. |
Land
On a greenfield site this is where most of the risk lives, and where a foreign buyer is least equipped to see it.
| Visura catastale | The land registry extract. It identifies the parcel and who is recorded as owning it. |
|---|---|
| Foglio and particella | Sheet and parcel: the two numbers that identify a piece of Italian land. Any serious conversation about a site starts with them. |
| Certificato di destinazione urbanistica CDU | The municipal certificate stating how a parcel is classified in planning terms. It is the document that says what may and may not be built there. |
| Zona agricola | Land classified as agricultural. Ground-mounted modules on agricultural land face restrictions under Italian law, with exceptions, and the Constitutional Court confirmed the approach in 2026. This is the single point where foreign buyers most often assume Italy works like their home market. It does not. |
| Agrivoltaico | Agrivoltaics: panels raised or spaced so that farming continues underneath or between them. In Italy it is a distinct category with its own rules, and part of the reason it exists is the restriction above. |
| Diritto di superficie | A surface right: the right to build and own a plant on someone else’s land for a fixed term. The usual structure for utility-scale projects, and different from a lease. |
| Affitto | A lease. Simpler, weaker, and generally not what an institutional buyer wants underneath a twenty-year asset. |
| Preliminare | A preliminary agreement with the landowner, often an option, signed before the authorisation route is complete. |
| Vincolo paesaggistico | A landscape constraint. Where one applies, the Soprintendenza — the heritage authority — enters the proceeding, and timelines change. |
Grid
The connection is what turns a field into a project. It is also the part that cannot be accelerated by spending more money.
| Preventivo di connessione | The connection offer issued by the network operator in response to an application: what the connection would look like, and what it would cost. |
|---|---|
| TICA | The regulator’s framework governing connection to the grid. In practice the word is used for the connection offer issued under it, and for the moment it is accepted. |
| STMG | The minimum general technical solution: the connection scheme set out by the operator. Receiving one, and accepting it, is a milestone a buyer will ask about before anything else. |
| Cabina primaria | The primary substation. Distance to it, and the capacity available there, decide more about a site than anything visible on the land itself. |
| Terna and the distributors | Terna operates the transmission network; distribution networks are operated by others. Which one you deal with depends on the voltage the plant connects at. |
| GAUDÌ | The national register of generation plants. A plant that is not in it, correctly, is not finished. |
The transaction
The words a buyer and a seller use for the same thing are rarely identical. These are the Italian ones.
| SPV società veicolo | The company holding a single project, usually an S.r.l. Most transactions are the sale of this company rather than of the plant itself. |
|---|---|
| Project rights diritti di progetto, Projektrechte, droits de projet | Everything that makes a project a project: land agreements, connection, authorisations and the studies behind them. What is actually being bought at the greenfield and development stages. |
| Ready to build RTB, baureif, prêt à construire | A project whose authorisation and connection are in place and which could, in principle, start construction. The term is used loosely across the market: ask exactly which documents are held before accepting it. |
| Greenfield | A site with no project on it yet. What is being sold is an opportunity and the work done so far, not a permitted asset. |
| Due diligence and data room | The same thing they mean everywhere. What differs in Italy is which documents a buyer should insist on, and at what stage. |
As at September 2026. This glossary is general information about Italian terminology, not legal, technical or investment advice, and it is not an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security, financial instrument or participation. Italian rules on suitable areas and on building over agricultural land have changed repeatedly and continue to be tested in the courts: verify the position applying to a specific site with the professionals appointed for it.
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