On 26 May 2026, the Regional Council approved a regulatory framework governing the development, expansion and monitoring of data centers in Lombardy.
Lombardy is the first Italian region to adopt a comprehensive legislative framework specifically dedicated to data centers.
Regional Law No. 11/2026 entered into force upon publication in the Official Regional Bulletin (BURL) No. 23 of 5 June 2026.
Purpose of the Law (Article 1)
Regional Law No. 11/2026 pursues four main objectives:
- supporting the growth of the productive system through technological development and the promotion of public and private investments in the data center sector;
- promoting sustainable territorial development and environmental protection by encouraging, through territorial equalisation instruments and environmental compensation measures, environmental preservation, urban regeneration, reduction of land consumption and environmental remediation;
- ensuring energy efficiency and environmental sustainability by encouraging the use of carbon-neutral energy sources, the recovery and reuse of waste heat and the development of technologies aimed at reducing energy consumption;
- ensuring that the development of data centers is consistent with the capacity of existing infrastructure networks.
Siting, Energy and Environmental Criteria and Incentive Measures (Articles 2 and 3)
Regional Law No. 11/2026 identifies specific siting and energy-environmental criteria for the development of data centers, including:
a) the siting of data centers in areas identified by municipalities as urban or territorial regeneration areas, brownfield, contaminated, degraded or underutilized sites, taking into account the proximity and compatibility of the site with electricity infrastructure;
b) the use of carbon-neutral energy sources;
c) the reuse of thermal energy generated by cooling systems within district heating networks;
d) the adoption of high water-efficiency cooling technologies aimed at limiting potable water consumption and encouraging the reuse of water resources.
Compliance with one or more of these criteria grants access to incentive measures, which may be cumulative, including:
a) the reduction of the time limits applicable to the compatibility assessment procedure (see below);
b) the adoption of administrative simplification protocols;
c) the priority access to regional funding for digital innovation and urban and territorial regeneration projects;
d) the reductions of the building fees pursuant to Article 19(1) of Presidential Decree No. 380/2001(i.e. the charges of treatment and disposal of solid, liquid and gaseous waste), in an amount determined by municipalities ranging from 10% to 30%;
e) the reduction of the area allocated to private parking spaces by 50%, extendable up to 75% through municipal council resolution or amendments to the town planning scheme (Piano di Governo del Territorio – PGT);
f) additional incentive measures, beyond those listed above, to be defined by municipalities within their urban planning regulations.
The relevant siting, energy-environmental criteria, as well as the related incentive measures, will be further specified through Regional Executive Board resolutions to be adopted within 60 days from the entry into force of the law.
Measures Accelerating Authorisation Procedures (Article 4)
In order to accelerate authorisation procedures relating to data centers, Regional Law No. 11/2026:
- designates the Region as the competent authority for the issuance of the authorisation under the single permitting procedure set out in Article 8 of Decree-Law No. 21/2026, as converted into Law No. 49/2026.
- establishes, within the regional department to be designated by resolution of the Regional Executive Board within 30 days from the entry into force of the Regional Law No. 11/2026, a Regional Data Center Desk responsible for managing the single permitting procedure falling within regional competence;
- provides that the Region shall rely on the technical and scientific support of ARPA in exercising its authorisation functions;
- requires projects concerning the development and expansion of data centers to be accompanied by an energy report prepared in accordance with criteria to be established by a subsequent resolution of the Regional Executive Board;
- establishes a regional task force (composed of representatives of the Region, ARPA, ATS, ERSAF, Provinces, the Metropolitan City of Milan and ANCI Lombardia), tasked with developing technical and administrative guidelines aimed at accelerating and harmonising the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Single Environmental Authorisation (SEA) procedures relating to data centers. The guidelines are to be approved by the Regional Executive Board by resolution to be adopted within 60 days of the entry into force of Regional Law No. 11/2026.
Urban Planning Aspects (Article 5)
a) Destination of Use
Data centers with a required grid connection capacity:
- exceeding 5 MW are classified as having an industrial use designation;
- up to 5 MW are compatible with productive, tertiary and office use designations.
The Regional Law No. 11/2026 also allows the development of data centers in areas designated for technological services where the infrastructure is integrated with district heating systems for the recovery of heat generated by cooling systems; however, for the purposes of calculating the construction contribution, the project remains classified as an industrial development.
b) Building fees
In order to calculate building fees and standards, data centers are classified as productive developments.
Projects involving the consumption of agricultural land are subject to an increase in building fees equal to 100%, rising to 200% in natural areas governed by Regional Law No. 86/1983; the increase in building fees are to be allocated to ecological, environmental, energy and urban regeneration compensation measures, which may also be carried out directly by the developer pursuant to an agreement with the relevant municipality.
c) Thermal Capacity and Connection Parameters
The implementation plan or the building permit for the construction or expansion of a data centre must specify:
- the nominal thermal capacity of emergency generators (expressed in MW), which is also relevant for the purposes of coordination with Environmental Impact Assessment screening and full EIA procedures; where an implementation plan is submitted, such value is indicative and will be determined precisely at the building permit stage;
- the required grid connection capacity.
d) Territorial Agreements for Supra-Municipal Developments
Data centers with a requested grid connection capacity exceeding 10 MW are classified as developments of supra-municipal relevance and are subject to a compatibility assessment conducted through a consultative coordination conference.
The conference is convened, at the request of the relevant municipality, by:
- the Metropolitan City of Milan or the territorially competent Province;
- the Region, in the case of developments with a requested grid connection capacity exceeding 50 MW, or those located in inter-provincial areas or subject to a unified authorisation procedure falling within regional competence.
The conference is aimed at executing a supra-municipal territorial agreement governing equalisation and compensation measures in relation to the territorial, environmental, infrastructural and social impacts of the development.
The procedures for conducting the compatibility assessment within the conference, the execution of the territorial agreement, and the criteria for determining equalisation and compensation measures are to be defined by a subsequent resolution of the Regional Executive Board, to be adopted within 60 days of the entry into force of L.R. No. 11/2026.
Measures to expedite the identification of areas suitable for data centre development (Art. 6)
In order to facilitate the development of data centers, municipalities are required to:
- to identify or update, by resolution of the Municipal Council, brownfield, contaminated, degraded, unused or underutilised sites within the municipal territory, as well as areas hosting existing data centres or designated for new developments or expansions, within 365 days of the entry into force of the Regional Law No. 11/2026;
- to update such mapping annually where substantial changes have occured;
- transmit geolocalised information to the Region and the competent Metropolitan City or Province for publication on their geoportals.
Transitional and Final Provisions (Article 9)
Regional Law No. 11/2026 provides that:
- the regional single permitting procedure (Article 4 of the Regional Law n. 11/2026) shall apply to applications for the development of data centres submitted after the publication in the BURL of the technical and administrative guidelines developed by the regional task force (Article 4.8 of the Regional Law No. 11/2026);
- IPPC permitting procedures pending at the date of the entry into force of the Regional Law shall be concluded by the Metropolitan City or the territorially competent Province;
- the procedure for the execution of supra-municipal territorial agreements (Article 5.7 of the Regional Law No. 11/2026) shall apply to the implementation plan or building permit submitted after the publication in the BURL of the regional resolutions setting out the procedures for such agreements and the criteria for determining equalisation and compensatory measures.
For a detailed review of the relevant provisions, please refer to the text of Regional Law No. 11/2026 that you can find here