This report provides a summary of the main facilitation strategies developed by the Italian government in recent years to promote and support the 4.0 evolution of businesses in our country.

The strategy developed is primarily aimed at providing economic and fiscal incentives to encourage businesses to invest in innovative technologies. In general, this approach has been effective, undergoing successive iterations and adjustments of the laws, reflecting continuous dialogue between various stakeholders, including legislators and business associations.

The report presents a concise overview of the evolution over time of the main regulations governing the various forms of facilitation proposed by the Industry/Business 4.0 Plan, highlighting the progressive refinement of the main objectives and the most suitable solutions for achieving them.

Additionally, the report includes a review of the main mechanisms for promoting energy efficiency in the industrial sector.

Due to European decarbonization commitments aimed at progressively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, there is a gradual shift in the Industry/Business 4.0 approach toward energy efficiency objectives. Industry 4.0, alongside other existing energy efficiency tools, can contribute to achieving the EU targets for 2030 and 2050 in combating climate change, with lower overall system and public finance costs. Furthermore, these investments will provide advanced technologies capable of enhancing the competitiveness of the national production system in line with the priorities of “Industry/Business 4.0.”

The timeline for the current incentives, which, with the exception of the New Sabatini, are extended until December 2020, highlights that this year represents a phase of synthesis and reformulation of the support mechanisms designed to assist businesses in the 4.0 technological development process, a necessary condition for international competitiveness.

It is crucial that future incentive programs be designed with particular attention to the cost-benefit balance and lessons learned from previous experiences. This necessitates ongoing, systematic monitoring of data related to all fundamental aspects, including economic, financial, technical, and energy-related factors.

Therefore, it is essential to account for and certify any energy savings achieved as a result of innovative operations, a possibility facilitated since 2019 by the Hyper-Amortization, which includes among the incentivized assets listed in Annex A of Law 232/2016, “components, systems, and intelligent solutions for managing, efficiently using, and monitoring energy consumption.”

This expenditure category specifically refers to systems that interact at the level of machinery and production process components, consisting of a set of sensors, control systems, and processing/simulation systems, interconnected and capable of managing energy resource consumption, optimizing electricity distribution, and minimizing potential overloads.

Utilizing this opportunity can create synergy between the two incentive strategies (one mainly focused on energy efficiency, the other on supporting business competitiveness), thereby enhancing the expected results of both.

This study represents the first objective of a three-year activity aimed at completing the analysis of the impact of the energy efficiency incentive system on various systems. At the end of this activity, it will be possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the various energy efficiency incentive systems in achieving the decarbonization targets for the sector, proposing, based on the acquired experience, any necessary additions and developments.