The Energy Account was introduced in Italy with The Community Directive 2001/77/EC and then transposed with the approval of Legislative Decree 387 of 2003. This mechanism became operational with the entry into force of the Interministerial Decrees of 28/07/2005 and 06/02/2006 (I° Conto Energia)which introduced thesystem of financing for the operation of electricity production.
D.M. 19/02/2007 (II° Conto Energia)introduced some innovations such as the application of the incentive tariff on all the energy produced by the plant, the simplification of the rules on access to incentivetariffs and the differentiation of tariffs also according to the type of architectural integration and the size of the plant.
There is also a premium for photovoltaic systems combined with the efficient use of energy.
In 2010, with D.M. 06/08/2010, the THIRD Energy Account came into force,applicable to plantsthat came into operation from 1 January 2011 until 31 May 2011, which introduced specific tariffs for integrated photovoltaic systems with innovative characteristics and concentrated photovoltaic systems.
With Law No. 129/2010 (so-called "Lawsaves Alcoa") the 2010 tariffs of the Second Energy Account were then confirmed to all plants able to certify thecompletion of the works by December 31, 2010 and to enter into operation by June 30, 2011.
After the enactment of the Legislative Decree. 28/2011, D.M. 05/05/2011 (IV° Conto Energia)was published, which defined the incentive mechanism for plantsthat entered into operation after 31 May 2011 with the aim of aligning the level of tariffs with the evolution of the costs of photovoltaic technology and introducing an annual cumulative cost limit of incentives, set at 6 billion euros.