The effectiveness of European energy policy on the Italian system: Regional evidences from a hierarchical cluster analysis approach

The implementation of environmentally sustainable energy
policies is a well-defined objective of the European Union (EU),
especially after the adoption of Directive 2009/28/EC. Following the
guidelines provided by the EU, this paper aims at identifying the role of
institutional, socio-economic and region-specific determinants in the
variation of regional renewable energy production and, therefore, in the
achievement of sustainable energy goals, i.e. increased renewable
production. By using a Logit regression on 20 Italian regions, we have
been able to show and highlight the accomplishments and failures of the
adopted policies. The findings show that institutional and countryspecific drivers, together with innovation issues are playing the main
role in the development of a green energy system.