On 23 July, the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (“MASE”) opened a public call for proposals to access EUR 193 million pool of funding for the development of biomethane. This will be made available in the form of investment aid which supports the promotion of innovative ecological practices (“Pratiche Ecologiche”) in biogas production.
These practices, outlined in DM 13/3/2024, include digestate-related measures (such as low-impact soil treatment and low-emission distribution systems), as well as the creation of centralised hubs for digestate and effluent treatment for fertiliser production.
Application submissions are via the GSE portal, with will open from 27 August 2025 and close on 26 September 2025.
This initiative forms part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (“PNRR”), Mission 2, Component 2, Investment 1.4. The total suggested investment under this measure is EUR 1.93 billion and includes the competitive auction rounds for production capacity (per DM 15/9/2022, covering both new plants and upgraded brownfield biogas plants).
On 28 July, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced it had approved a loan to Snam, Italy’s gas TSO, to develop biomethane infrastructure. The loan – up to EUR 264 million – will be deployed for projects which will result in 240 km of new transmission pipelines, enabling the transport of 12 TWh/year of biomethane.
The first tranche, EUR 140 million, was signed on the day of the announcement. Both EIB and Snam touted the cooperation as key to their roles in the energy transition:
For the EIB, the promotion of innovation in sustainable development as part of their commitment to support EUR 1 trillion in related investment, which already includes almost EUR 60 billion in the financing of Italian projects in the last five years.
For Snam, a recognition of biomethane as a strategic domestic resource and the integration of distributed biomethane production to the national grid.
Both the MASE and EIB/Snam announcements are aligned with the PNRR, with a target of 2.3-2.5 bcm (26 TWh) domestic biomethane production by 2030.
The innovation funds will help scale feedstocks such as manure, which can be logistically challenging but highly valuable from a GHG/carbon intensity perspective. The development of the network by Snam will ensure dispersed production sites can access demand centres; without well-developed networks, many projects may struggle to achieve financial viability.
On 23 July 2025, the Commission announced that it would take action to ensure the timely transposition of EU directives, including Directive 2023/2413 (RED III). The RED transposition deadline was 21 May 2025, with provisions related to permitting required even earlier (1 July 2024).
The RED III aims to mainstream renewable energy in hard-to-decarbonise sectors, including transport and heating where biomethane is currently a viable green alternative.
However, to date only Denmark had notified the EC of full transposition of the Directive, with the Commission opting to send formal notices to the remaining 26 Member States to complete their transposition.
Italy’s transposition of RED III to date had been limited, often extending RED II (2018/2001) measures rather than implementing the new directive in full.
In the context of the Snam and MASE announcements, full transposition will be essential to the development of the Italian biomethane. Implementing RED III would help establish demand-side incentives, further encouraging investment and capital flow into the local sector.
RED III in particular introduces transport-sector GHG intensity targets, which favour ultra-low CI biomethane (including the aforementioned manure biomethane), and expands the scope to include the Maritime sector, which is a rapidly growing market for bioLNG. Meaningful transposition would amplify demand signals and reinforce alignment with industry investment and policy objectives.
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