Incentives and disincentives for investments in the renewable energy sector: issues of entrustment and protection

Abstract

Which incentives and disincentives to invest in renewable energy? The paper focuses on the interpretation of the principle of legitimate expectations given by the European and national jurisprudence, with specific reference to the complex legislation on incentives for the production of energy from renewable sources and proposes some considerations on the legal protection. The attitude of the Italian legislator is sometimes cautious, sometimes inclined to a hyperregulation of the matter. The jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and administrative jurisprudence, on the one hand, and the Court of Justice of the European Union, on the other, seem to converge on the key points. The legitimate expectation that can be protected encounters a limit in the context of the balancing of interests underlying a regulatory innovation, without prejudice to the limit of non-retroactivity. The attitude of the Italian legislator sometimes contributes to feed uncertainty in the sector. In the role entrusted to them of seeking a balance between public interest to the achievement of the objectives of the cd. European Green Deal and private interest in the development of freedom of economic initiative, it would be desirable to activate analysis and study programs that last over time, limiting the use of emergency regulatory interventions or related to current contingencies, in order to encourage private economic initiative in one of the strategic sectors for the country’s ecological transition process