Green certificates

Green Certificates are the new renewable energy source incentive scheme introduced following the liberalization of the industry in Italy by Decree Law (DL) 79/99 (known as the Bersani Act).
Previously the subject was regulated by Laws 9 and 10 of 1991, and the inter-ministerial committee (CIP) provision 6 of 1992. These can take the credit for having developed awareness in the general public of the fact that rather than being just a slogan, the production of renewable - or “clean” - energy represents a focal point of sustainable development, and an avenue to progress which will no longer harm the ecosystem.
For the purposes of the incentives however, the legislation placed truly renewable sources alongside assimilated thermal sources that used waste, and the funds provided were rapidly depleted by the latter on account of their far higher plant engineering costs and capacities. This penalized and delayed the production of truly renewable energy: a massive error which was remedied by the Bersani decree, in which the concept of assimilated sources disappeared, and a new form of incentivisation was given to renewable sources.

Under the Bersani Decree, updated by DL 387/03 and Laws 239/04 and 244/07 (better known as the 2008 Finance Act), at least 2% of the electricity of all operators introducing more than 100 GWh/year into the grid had to be produced by plant fuelled by renewable sources.
This obligation was increased by 0.35% a year from 2004 until 2006, and then by 0.75% from 2007 to 2011. Each producer is awarded Green Certificates for each MWhe/year produced, multiplied by the coefficient attributed to the type of renewable source assigned in Table 2 of the 2008 Finance Act, updated by Law no. 99 of 23/07/2009.
The certificates issued under this system are valid for three years. DL 159/07, as amended when converted into Law 220/07 and by Ministerial Decree of 18/12/2008, increased the period for the issuing of Green Certificates from twelve to fifteen years, and made them directly tradeable between the owners of plant and the operators concerned, or on a market specially set up for this purpose by the Electricity Market Manager (GME).