On 7 August 2014, the Italian Parliament approved the conversion into law of Law Decree no. 91 /2014 (the Decree) regarding, amongst other matters, “urgent measures … for the limitation of costs applied to electricity prices”. The approval law will enter into force at the day after its publication on the Official Gazette. As we reported in our OTS of 25 June 2014 , Article 26 of the Decree provided for a reduction of 8 per cent on the currently applicable feed-intariff (FiT) rates for photovoltaic (PV) plants with a nominal power exceeding 200 kW or, alternatively, a tariff reduction of between 17 per cent and 25 per cent against an extension of the payment period by four years.

In converting the Decree into law, the Italian Parliament has made several changes to the original version of Article 26. In particular, PV plants with a nominal power of 900 kW or less will suffer a slightly lower tariff reduction, and a third option has been added that redistributes the incentives without extending the 20 year payment period. In addition, all operators of renewable energy plants will be granted the possibility of an early redemption of up to 80 per cent of their incentives by selling them to a financial institution. An English convenience translation of new Article 26 of the Decree is provided at the end of this article.