The landscapes of energy incentives

Abstract The huge economic resources which have been available for more than a decade to promote the development of renewable energy sources (RES) and assimilated ones have had as a side effect the installation of plants in many areas of Italian territory, where, in several cases, they started to characterize the landscapes. The high speed with which these plants spread in the territory, the low consideration generally given to the landscape and the cultural and normative lack of preparation with which local authorities have been able to address this diffusion in its acute phase have triggered a strong debate—not only among experts but also in the newspapers—which was useful to understand the issue and to think about possible solutions. This article aims to describe a general framework about the principal effects on the landscape produced by economic incentives in the energy sector, reflecting on the main phases in which economic resources have been allocated to stimulate the use of RES. The first part of the essay describes the incentive mechanisms of RES which have been adopted in Italy since the early 1980s, with particular attention to those adopted during this decade, since these latter have been much more effective and have had a greater impact on the landscape. In the second part the technological, building and territorial factors which are causing the incentives for RES plants to significantly affect the landscape of some territories will be illustrated (see for example those areas affected by wind farms or biogas and photovoltaic plants). Following such line of reasoning we can talk about landscapes of energy incentives. In the third part the main changes to the landscape due to medium and large wind power, photovoltaic, hydroelectric and biomass plants will be summarized.