Drafting of the Regional Plan for the Identification of Land Acceleration Zones and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Lombardy Region
The Regional Plan for the Identification of Land Acceleration Zones of the Lombardy Region, drafted pursuant to Legislative Decree No. 190 of 25/11/2024, initiates the process for defining the regional plan for the identification of land acceleration zones, establishing the regional vision and the objective to be pursued in order to map land acceleration zones for renewable energy plants and electricity storage facilities powered by renewable sources.
The Plan therefore represents an additional strategic instrument to support a sustainable and territorially balanced energy transition. The identification of acceleration zones is defined in accordance with the provisions of Legislative Decree 190/2024.
The Regional Plan for the Identification of Land Acceleration Zones aims to identify and delimit portions of territory where the installation of renewable energy plants can take place through simplified authorization procedures and reduced timelines, with particular emphasis on the development of photovoltaic plants. The Plan seeks to promote an orderly and sustainable development of renewable energy infrastructures, ensuring compatibility with environmental, landscape and urban planning constraints, and contributing to the achievement of national and European decarbonization targets.
It identifies specific areas for the rapid deployment of renewable energy plants through simplified authorization procedures and reduced timelines, specifically for photovoltaic solar energy, mainly including artificial surfaces or anthropized areas. The objective of the Regional Plan for the Identification of Land Acceleration Zones is to contribute to the renewable energy production targets of the Lombardy Region established by the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan.
The first step of the Plan Document is to define the Lombardy energy context and its possible evolution. It analyzes national electricity demand and electricity production in Lombardy, whose generation mix is characterized by a predominance of thermoelectric power, accompanied by a significant share of hydropower and an increasing contribution from non-programmable renewable sources, particularly photovoltaic energy and bioenergy.
Other important elements considered within the Plan’s knowledge framework include the strengthening and development of the electricity grid, as well as the existence of an adequate, widespread and resilient infrastructure capable of supporting the increase in energy demand generated by new end uses and by the technological evolution of the productive and civil sectors, in addition to the expansion of data centers.
The methodology adopted by the Regional Plan for the Identification of Land Acceleration Zones to achieve its objective is the following:
- Study of the potential of Lombardy’s territory for the development of photovoltaic plants through the analysis of updated cartographic databases published on the Geoportal. A fundamental tool in this first step will be the Interactive Maps of the areas and criteria identified for acceleration zones.
- Calculation of the installable capacity of photovoltaic plants within the acceleration zones identified through the maps.
- Based on this detailed knowledge framework, the “Contribution Matrix for individual areas and criteria of the Acceleration Zones” is then developed in order to relate the areas that may be considered acceleration zones with the types of photovoltaic plants envisaged and their installable capacity.
- The Matrix described above represents a key tool for the implementation of the Plan, as the identification of the different criteria for defining Acceleration Zones will constitute the reference document for Local Authorities in defining the administrative regimes (free activity, simplified authorization procedure and single authorization) to be applied to the various installations required for the deployment and development of photovoltaic plants within the framework of a sustainable energy transition.
THE ROLE OF TERRARIA
TerrAria provides assistance and support services for the drafting of the Regional Plan for the Identification of Land Acceleration Zones for the Lombardy Region, as well as for the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process and the Appropriate Assessment of the Plan’s impacts on sites belonging to the Natura 2000 Network. Specifically, TerrAria supports the drafting of the Plan Document by contributing to the analysis of the Lombardy energy context and to the identification of acceleration zones for the development of photovoltaic plants.
The Strategic Environmental Assessment, on the other hand, is intended to evaluate in advance the environmental consequences of strategic decisions. The SEA documents therefore include an analysis of the environmental reference context and the possible interactions between the Plan and environmental components, as well as the interactions between the Plan and the other Plans and Programs that form part of the regional and supra-regional regulatory framework. Another important contribution concerns the definition of the monitoring system, shared by both the Strategic Environmental Assessment and the Plan, whose purpose is to assess the evolution of the context in which the Plan is implemented and the actual contributions of the Plan to that context.
