The Constitutional Court has not ruled on the merits of the Sardinia Region's law regarding suitable and unsuitable areas for renewable energy plants.
With ordinance 115 of 2026, the Constitutional Court ordered the return of the documents to the TAR of Sardinia and Lazio for a new examination of the questions of constitutional legitimacy .
In the provision, the constitutional judges highlight that, following the previous ruling by the same judges (number 184 of 2025) and the subsequent amendments to the original law, amended by Sardinian law 31 of 2025, it is up to the TAR "to concretely assess the impact of the subsequent amendments both in terms of relevance and in reference to the non-manifest groundlessness of the questions".
The decision concerns Regional Law 20 of 2024, challenged by several energy companies, including RWE Renewables, Sorgenia, Edison Rinnovabili, Maple Tree Solar, and EF Agri.
At the heart of the dispute are the regulations that had identified large portions of the regional territory as unsuitable for the installation of renewable energy plants.
The Court declared some of the issues raised by the administrative judges "manifestly inadmissible," deeming the reasoning contained in the TAR rulings insufficient. For other provisions, however, it deemed a new examination by the administrative magistrates necessary in light of "supervening regulatory developments and its own previous ruling 184 of 2025."
With that very decision, the Constitutional Court had already declared certain sections of the Sardinian law illegitimate , clarifying that identifying an area as unsuitable cannot translate into an absolute and preventive ban on the construction of facilities. The Court had also established that the final assessment must be carried out within the authorization procedures established by state legislation.
(Unioneonline)
