Quarto Conto Energia (D.M. 5/05/2011)

The Ministerial Decree of 5 May 2011, published in the Official Gazette of 12/05/2011, known as Quarto Conto Energia, is reserved for power plants of no less than 1 kW that come into operation after 31 May 2011 and until 31 December 2016 .

Until 2012, the mechanism provides for the incentive of electricity produced by photovoltaic plants through a constant tariff for 20 years from the date of entry into operation of the plant. Starting from the first half of 2013, the incentive tariffs will have an all-encompassing value on the energy fed into the electricity grid. A specific tariff will be assigned on the self-consumed energy quota.

The Quarto Conto Energia identifies a photovoltaic power target to be installed at national level of about 23,000 MW and has envisaged a progressive and planned reduction of tariffs over time in order to gradually align the public incentive with the costs of the technologies and maintain stability and certainty on the market. It has also established periodic cost limits:

– that in the period between June 1, 2011 and December 31, 2012 restrict access to the incentive rates for “Large Plants”, for which, moreover, registration is required to an IT Register managed by the Energy Services Manager – GSE SpA;
– the exceeding of which in the period 2013-2016 determines an additional tariff reduction compared to the programmed one.