Data centres in Italy: The new Lombardy regional law on data centres

The national precedent – the “Energy bills Decree-Law”

The Lombardy bill follows in the footsteps of the earlier Decree-Law No. 21 of 20 February 2026 (the so-called “Energy bills Decree-Law”), which established an initial national authorization framework on the matter, providing that:

• Data centres (meaning enterprise data centres, co-location and co-hosting facilities, as defined by EU Regulation 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024) are authorized through a single authorization process carried out by means of a conference of services within 10 months from the application.
• The competent authority for issuing the authorization is the Region, or the Ministry (depending on the power output of the data centre). In particular, for data centre projects declared by the Council of Ministers to be of paramount national strategic interest (with a total value of no less than one billion euros), the single authorization is issued by an Extraordinary Government Commissioner, in line with the provisions of Decree-Law No. 104/2023;
• The single authorization process also incorporates the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures (with different rules depending on whether projects are subject to full EIA or merely to EIA screening).
• The 10-month deadline for the conclusion of the procedure is to be considered directory only (no substitute powers or specific penalties are provided in case of non-compliance).

The directory nature of the above deadline is one of the main shortcomings of the national legislation, which – despite having started from the commendable intent to bring order and speed up a rapidly developing sector – ultimately missed the opportunity to guarantee firm timelines.

The Lombardy Regional Law

The national legislation left an open issue, perhaps the most important one: that of zoning. In fact -unlike what occurs for renewable energy plants- the national law does not provide that the authorization issued following the single authorization process represents also a planning authorization. This is an important point as it entails that a zoning authorization may be required in addition -and as condition precedent- for obtaining the authorization for the project through the single authorization process.

The Regional Law regulates also planning aspects, providing that:

• Data centres shall primarily be located on disused industrial sites (brownfields). When located on such sites, incentive measures are granted, including reduction of theconstruction contribution up to 30%,reduction in the surface required for parkingareas (up to 50–75% in respect of the normal requirements), as well as shorter procedural timeframes and the adoption of simplification protocols, to be better specified in the implementing guidelines;
• Location on agricultural land is not per se prohibited but it entails a significant increase in the construction contribution: a surcharge of 100% applies for projects located on agricultural land, rising to 200% where interventions fall within regional parks and areas of particular natural and environmental significance. Proceeds of these contributions are earmarked for the financing of redevelopment and environmental restoration interventions at the municipal level.
• Municipalities are required to identify and publish a complete mapping of all brownfield/degraded/contaminated areas suitable for data centres developments, as well as areas already hosting data centres, within one year from the entry into force of the law and to update such mapping annually, in order to facilitate the development of data centres. While the compliance by the municipalities of these duties will constitute a preferential criterion for the allocation of regional funds at municipal level, companies may in any event submit applications for interventions in those areas, even where the relevant municipality has not adopted the above mapping.
• Another point clarified by the Regional Law is that of legal use of the building: (i) data centres exceeding 5 MW are identified as production facilities, (ii) data centres up to 5 MW are compatible with productive, tertiary and office use designations, (iii) development of data centres are permitted also in areas designated for technological services where the infrastructure is integrated with heating systems for the recovery of heat generated by cooling systems.

This is the first time an explicit building use designation for data centres has been introduced in the law; in fact, in the past some developments had been qualified by the single municipality under the office/commercial legal use of the building. The qualification as production facility has an impact in terms of urban planning charges; the project is classified as an industrial development, which entails significantly lower costs than the office/commercial one.

Finally, data centres with grid connection capacity above 10 MW are deemed of relevance beyond the municipal level and require a compatibility assessment via an official conference convened by (i) the competent Province/City of Milan, or (ii) the Region in case of projects over 50 MW or projects located in multiple provinces (further details will be included in the implementing guidelines).

In addition to urban planning matters, the Regional Law also regulates – in line with what was already provided by the Energy bills Decree-Law:

• the centralization of authorization functions under the Region, through the unified regulation of the Integrated Environmental Authorization (AIA) and Single Environmental Authorization (AUA) procedures.
• the establishment of the “Regional Data Center Office”, responsible for managing the single authorization process for the issuance of authorizations, where the authority competent to grant such authorisation is the Region. The provision of a single institutional point of contact aims to ensure uniformity and certainty of procedural timelines.

Finally:

• Implementing guidelines will be adopted within 60 days from the publication of the Regional Law, further specifying, by way of example, incentive measures and the procedures for the conference relating to data centres with grid connection capacity above 10 MW.
• The Regional Law will come into force on 20 June 2026; according to the transitional provisions, the new rules and the single authorization process will apply only to applications for data centres’ development submitted after the publication of the abovementioned implementing guidelines; pending applications will be governed by the former regulations.

Authored by Maria Deledda and Monica Nicoletti.