Italy's Pichetto Fratin links 30 GW permit backlog to annual power import volume
Inter-ministerial disputes are trapping authorised renewable projects while gas prices already exceed the threshold at which the minister said coal restarts become viable.
Italy's energy minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said on Monday (2026-09-07) that roughly 30 gigawatts of renewable capacity is trapped inside the country's permitting system, an amount he equated to Italy's entire annual power import volume, Montel reported. On Thursday (2026-09-10), ICE Endex TTF front-month traded at €79.29/MWh, already above the €70/MWh threshold at which Pichetto Fratin had said in May (2026-05-18) that mothballed Italian coal plants could be reactivated.6,1
The import volumes Italy is paying to sustain could, in the minister's framing, be displaced by domestic generation already approved but not yet built. Pichetto Fratin broke the backlog into two categories: 10 GW consists of fully authorised projects that have not broken ground, and a further 22 GW has received energy ministry clearance but is stalled because of objections from other government departments, including the culture ministry.6
For investors, that split matters. The 10 GW segment could theoretically move to construction without further sign-off. The 22 GW wedge requires a political resolution between ministries, a process the energy ministry alone cannot force. Developer Galileo told Montel that permitting delays, grid bottlenecks and regulatory uncertainty are slowing investment despite Italy's continued appeal for clean-energy capital.3,6
The financing framework is in place. The European Commission approved a €23 billion state aid package for Italian renewables in June (2026-06), cleared under its Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework. The scheme targets 37.15 GW of additional capacity across wind, solar, hydro and sewer gas, which Power Technology put at roughly 48% of Italy's current installed renewable base. Projects above 1 MW will compete through competitive auctions.4,5
State-owned energy agency GSE has announced plans to auction 10 GW of solar and 16 GW of wind under the Fer X scheme, Montel reported. But Italy's permitting record suggests the gap between an auction award and a generating plant is considerable. Galileo and other developers have flagged that grid connection bottlenecks compound the bureaucratic delays that already slow project timelines.3
Italy's gas supply position adds weight to the minister's argument. The country lost around 6.5 billion cubic metres of LNG from Qatar following the Iran war, according to Matteo Villa, senior researcher at Italian think tank ISPI, who told Montel that replacing that Qatari volume with US supply would take roughly four years. American LNG flows have also become politically complicated since the falling-out between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and US President Donald Trump, though industry observers told Montel that near-term decoupling from US cargoes remains unlikely.2
The coal option has not gone away. Pichetto Fratin said in May (2026-05-18) that Italian coal plants could be brought back online if gas exceeded €70/MWh. TTF is already through that level. The government has not confirmed any restart, and using the possibility as pressure on inter-ministerial cooperation is at least as plausible a motivation for the minister's public framing.1
Italy has committed to sourcing 39.4% of gross final energy consumption from renewables before the end of the decade. The 37.15 GW pipeline earmarked for state support would push significantly toward that target, but the gap between approved megawatts and commissioned capacity has been the persistent fault line in Italian energy planning for years.4
The Fer X auction schedule and GSE's pace in converting bids to grid connection are the clearest near-term indicators. With Qatari LNG removed from the supply mix, US volumes politically sensitive, and TTF already past the coal-restart threshold the minister named, resolving inter-ministerial disputes over permitting carries a direct cost in Italy's gas import bill for each quarter the backlog persists.3,2,1