There are some interesting incentives in the South (Bonus Sud, Industry 4.0, R&D Tax Credit, grants) that could greatly support entrepreneurship development, both Green and otherwise. The problem is that too often our entrepreneurs find themselves having to argue with government officials who challenge various tax bonuses due to a lack of knowledge of the regulations. Regarding R&D, we have frequently seen credits aggressively contested by the Revenue Agency, as noted in one of many rulings (C.T.P. VICENZA, RULING NO. 365/3/2021): ‘There is an excess of power by the Office, since it is not competent, from a technical standpoint, to evaluate the relevance of the activities performed to improve the company’s production cycles.’

This is why, despite the necessary measures for development, unfortunately, entrepreneurs choose not to proceed due to a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of our system,” states Veronica Pitea, President of ACEPER (Association of Consumers and Producers of Renewable Energy), which brings together 10,000 renewable energy production plants, representing over 7,000 members with a total installed capacity exceeding 2 GWp. Organized crime, which has recently sniffed out opportunities in the renewable sector, could tarnish the image of the entire ‘healthy’ renewable sector, but President Pitea has confidence in the authorities: “We have had cases in the past, such as the ‘king of wind power’ Vito Nicastri… I would not want us to hide behind a finger; we know that similar situations exist in various sectors, which is why the law enforcement agencies work to ensure, as in the case of Messina Denaro, that such ‘entrepreneurs’ are identified and punished by the law.”

To overcome the current energy crisis, the ACEPER President sees no solution other than renewables: “To address the crisis, we see no other options. In this regard, the government must absolutely ensure less bureaucracy, more technical discussions with market players, and less regulatory instability. Over the years, one thing that has frightened both foreign and Italian entrepreneurs is something we have only in Italy called ‘retroactivity,’ which is the superpower of our laws/decrees to be changed after years with retroactive effects. We have had several such situations in renewables. For instance, the incentive spreading, the ‘Save Italy’ decree, the Tremonti environment, and others. For now, from the Meloni government – continues Veronica Pitea – we have received regulations that seem interesting but without implementing decrees, we do not know if they will actually turn into opportunities. We are still very cumbersome and unfortunately, for example, in the case of grants that could support the sector, bureaucracy prevails over Green,” concludes the ACEPER President