Regulation

Italy's iperammortamento 2026 for solar: it works for remote self-consumption too

By Michele PravadelliPublished 9 June 2026Updated 11 October 20269 min read

Much of what has been written about Italy's iperammortamento 2026 (the country's enhanced-depreciation relief) takes one thing for granted: that the plant sits on the roof or yard of whoever consumes the power. The 2026 budget law and its implementing decree (the MIMIT-MEF interministerial decree of 7 May 2026) say something different, and more useful. Among eligible assets the law (art. 1, paragraph 429(b)) includes renewable self-production «for self-consumption even at a distance», storage plants included; the decree sets its perimeter (art. 8).

It is one phrase, at a distance, but it widens the reach. The relief applies even when the plant is not physically where the load is: a field a few kilometres away, within the same zona di mercato (bidding zone) as the production facility, serving one or more of the company's withdrawal points. It is a model we work on, and it is the angle that, in the tax commentary we read, mostly stays in the background.

The window is open now

The relief covers investments completed between 1 January 2026 and 30 September 2028, with the completion notice filed to the GSE by 15 November 2028. Access is fully online, on the GSE platform (Area Clienti, via SPID, CIE or credentials); signing and filing the notices requires SPID.

The part that drives the timeline is elsewhere: the procedure runs on three GSE filings, in sequence (upfront notice; confirmation within 60 days of the positive outcome, with a down payment of at least 20%; completion by 15 November 2028). If one is missing or late the procedure is not perfected, and the uplift only counts from the tax period in which the completion notice is filed. Whoever buys and postpones the paperwork risks pushing the benefit back, or losing it. On a solar plant in remote self-consumption, where design and grid connection take time, the iperammortamento has to be in the model from day one, not bolted on later.

«Even at a distance»: what it actually unlocks

Remote self-consumption decouples the point of production from the point of consumption. For the iperammortamento the perimeter is the zona di mercato (bidding zone) where the production facility sits (art. 8 of the decree); the cabina primaria (primary substation) is the perimeter within which the GSE pays its contributions on self-consumed energy. In practice an energy-intensive company is not forced to find the square metres next to its plant: the array can sit where it makes sense to build it (better irradiation, available land, a cleaner connection) and, within the primary substation, the energy is still valued as self-consumption.

The fiscal point is that the relief does not stop at the plant fence. The decree (art. 8) admits plants on the same cadastral parcels as the production facility, on different parcels connected to existing withdrawal points (POD) of the same facility and, in the remote self-consumption cases under art. 30(1)(a)(2) of Legislative Decree 199/2021, within the same bidding zone. That provision requires the buildings or sites of the plant to be available to the company. The wider perimeter opens two routes:

the company invests directly in a remote plant serving its own withdrawals;
the company uses a plant under a finance lease: the uplift also applies to the lease instalments and goes to the company that uses it for self-consumption.

The second is where structure matters more than tax: who the lessee is, which costs go into the contract, how they are kept apart from those covered by other instruments. More on that below.

What it is worth

The uplift is tiered, on the cost of the investment:

+180% up to €2.5 million;
+100% above €2.5m and up to €10m;
+50% above €10m and up to €20m.

Mind the perimeter of the tiers: they apply to all eligible investments completed in each year, 4.0 assets included, not to the single plant; the full +180% covers the first €2.5 million of that total. It is an uplift on the cost for depreciation purposes: over the asset's tax-depreciation period you deduct far more than the cost actually incurred. The cash effect is not immediate like a tax credit, but on a multi-year asset it is substantial and predictable.

The module constraint, where the numbers break

Only modules listed in the ENEA register (DL 181/2023, art. 12), and belonging to two categories, are eligible:

Type B: modules and cells both produced in the European Union, minimum cell efficiency 23.5%;
Type C: modules produced in the EU with bifacial silicon heterojunction (HJT) or tandem cells, also produced in the EU, minimum cell efficiency 24%.

Category A is excluded from the relief. And there is an operational detail the spreadsheets ignore: category B, eligible on paper, lists no module at all in the ENEA register as of 11 October 2026 (175 entries: 156 in category A, 19 in category C, from just two brands). Translated: in practice you buy category C, with the price and availability that follow. The economics of the relief are decided on the module bill of materials, not on the headline rate.

There has been some easing, but elsewhere. DL 38/2026 removed the Made in EU constraint on general capital goods: inverters, storage, transformers and balance-of-system components can come from any region. The provenance constraint, and ENEA listing in category B or C, remains only on modules and cells. It is a real simplification on the rest of the plant, but it does not move the bottleneck, which is still the modules.

The two caps to put in the spreadsheet

Beyond the module constraint, the implementing decree sets two quantitative limits that change how you size the plant, and that, in our view, many simulations overlook.

The first is a productivity cap: the plant's maximum expected output cannot exceed 105% of the energy needs of the production facility, computed on the average annual consumption of the previous financial year, thermal consumption converted to equivalent energy included. The logic is consistent with the word self-consumption: the relief covers the energy the production site needs, not a plant oversized to sell the surplus. On a remote self-consumption project the demand therefore gets measured first, and the sizing follows from it, not from the land available.

The second is a specific cost ceiling, tabulated in Annex 1 of the decree: the eligible cost per kW decreases with plant size and varies by module category. For type-B modules it runs from 1,420 euro per kW for plants up to 20 kWp down to 840 euro per kW above one megawatt; for type C from 1,500 down to 940 euro per kW, with the intermediate brackets in the table. Above the ceiling, the excess cost falls outside the uplift: the economics of the relief are computed on the eligible cost, not on the project capex.

Cumulability: where it fits, and where it does not

The general rule is easy to state and delicate to apply: the iperammortamento is cumulable with other incentives, national or European, on the same costs, provided the different supports do not cover the same cost shares and the total does not exceed the cost incurred.

In concrete terms:

cumulable with other incentives on the same assets, under the general rule and with the calculation base net of contributions received: the law does not exclude the ZES Unica tax credit (which in turn allows stacking within the EU maximum aid intensities) nor the Nuova Sabatini;
not cumulable with the 2025 Transizione 4.0 credit (2025 budget law, paragraph 446) on the same investments; Transizione 5.0 covered investments completed by 31 December 2025, so it does not overlap.

The real knot, when a financier or a third-party producer enters the deal, is the cost carve-out: who makes the investment and uses it for the self-consumption of its own production facility, which costs it capitalises, how the share covered by other instruments is kept separate. A plant that stays with a third party, which sells the power to the company under a power purchase agreement (PPA), finds no support in the text: the rule speaks of the company's own investment for the self-consumption of its own production facility. Getting the cost perimeter wrong, or stacking two incentives on the same share, is not an inefficiency, it is a finding. It belongs in the deal structure, before the appraisal.

The GSE procedure, in three steps

Access runs through a perizia asseverata (a sworn technical appraisal, or an attestation from an accredited body), an accounting certification from a statutory auditor, and three filings on the GSE platform:

upfront notice, which books the relief;
confirmation, within 60 days of the positive outcome of the upfront notice, with a down payment of at least 20%;
completion, by 15 November 2028.

Nothing exotic, but the sequence is binding: skip a filing, or file it late, and the procedure is not perfected. On a remote PV plant, where the self-consumption configuration also goes through the GSE to access the contributions on self-consumed energy, it pays to run the two processes in parallel, not in series.

Where it goes wrong

The missteps that, in our view, cost the most:

treating it as an on-site only relief, and missing the at-a-distance option the decree explicitly grants;
sizing the plant on the land available instead of on demand, and discovering the 105% cap with the design done;
modelling returns before fixing the module category, and finding out later that category C changes the maths;
assuming it stacks with the 2025 4.0 credit on the same goods;
letting the 60-day window for the confirmation lapse, or reaching completion without having closed the upfront notice and confirmation in order;
a weak appraisal that does not hold up under review.

Italy's iperammortamento 2026, on solar in remote self-consumption, is a structuring problem before it is a fiscal one: who makes the investment, where the plant sits, how the costs are split, when you file. It is where the deal structure has to be settled before the appraisal, with people who have project experience.

The rules of remote self-consumption itself (grid or direct line, primary substation and bidding zone, ARERA fee and GSE premium tariff, third-party producers and PPAs) are collected in the guide to remote self-consumption in Italy, 2026. For a business comparing the routes to cover its own consumption, the "I need energy for my company" section summarises what is usually needed and what to have ready for a first contact.

Sources

Enabling law: Law 199 of 30 December 2025 (2026 budget law), art. 1, paragraphs 427-436, text in force on Normattiva. From 1 January 2027 the rules move to art. 364 of the new consolidated income-tax code (Legislative Decree 117 of 19 June 2026), which carries over the text.

Implementing decree: interministerial decree of 7 May 2026, Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy jointly with the Ministry of Economy and Finance (signed by the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy on 4 May and by the Minister of Economy and Finance on 7 May 2026, the date under which MIMIT publishes it; text and signatures re-read on 11 October 2026), implementing art. 1, paragraphs 427-436, of Law 199/2025; remote self-consumption perimeter, 105% cap and cost ceilings in art. 8 and Annex 1, Table 2a. Filing terms and templates: MIMIT, directorial decree of 10 June 2026.

Procedure and documents: GSE, Nuovo Piano Transizione 5.0, pages Come accedere (how to apply) and Chi può accedere (who can apply), accessed on 2 October 2026; GSE, Modello di comunicazione preventiva (upfront notice template), June 2026; GSE, Istruzioni operative Transizione 2026 (operating instructions), July 2026.

Remote self-consumption: Legislative Decree 199 of 8 November 2021, art. 30(1)(a)(2), referred to by art. 8 of the decree, for the availability of the site; GSE, Autoconsumatori a distanza (remote self-consumers), accessed on 2 October 2026, for the primary substation as the perimeter of the contributions.

Module register and categories A, B, C: Decree-Law 181 of 9 December 2023, art. 12, register kept by ENEA; entry count from ENEA's Registro delle tecnologie per il fotovoltaico (PV technology register), accessed on 11 October 2026. Easing of the provenance constraint on general capital goods: Decree-Law 38 of 27 March 2026, art. 7, converted by Law 88 of 22 May 2026.

Cumulation: Law 199/2025, art. 1, paragraph 431; Law 207 of 30 December 2024, art. 1, paragraph 446 (2025 Transizione 4.0 credit); Decree-Law 19 of 2 March 2024, art. 38 (Transizione 5.0); Decree-Law 124 of 19 September 2023, art. 16 (ZES Unica credit).

Update of 31 August 2026: added the 105% productivity cap and the specific cost ceiling, both in the decree and missing from the first version of this article. Update of 2 October 2026, after a check against the primary sources: corrected the date of the decree (7 May, not 4 May 2026), the remote self-consumption perimeter (bidding zone, not primary substation), the filing sequence (no source requires the upfront notice to be filed before the investment starts), the requirements for type B and C modules, the cumulation rules and the third-party producer configuration; clarified that the site availability requirement for remote self-consumption comes from art. 30 of Legislative Decree 199/2021, to which the decree refers; added the accounting certification, the type C ceilings and the ENEA register count. Update of 11 October 2026: recounted the modules listed in the ENEA register (175, of which 156 in category A, 19 in category C and none in category B: count unchanged); confirmed on the signed text the date of the decree, 7 May 2026, the day of the second signature; added the links to the guide on remote self-consumption and to the section for businesses. This article is not tax or legal advice.