Abstract
The current paper contributes to the literature on community renewable energy by considering two projects developed in the north-west of Italy, in the Piedmont region. Community renewable energy is increasingly regarded by academic literature and policy discourse as crucial to ensure a socially and environmentally just energy transition. In spite of the growing diffusion of community renewable energy projects, there is still a lack of theoretically informed analyses. Our article tries to address this gap by combining two theoretical perspectives: the multilevel perspective and the socio-technical imaginaries approach. Applying the first perspective helps reconstruct the context and circumstances that have permitted the Piedmont’s energy community projects to emerge. Particular attention is given to the windows of opportunity created by the Regional Law 12/2018, which acknowledged the establishment of energy communities for the first time in Italy. The socio-technical imaginaries perspective allows the identification of collective ideas and meanings that emerge when individuals or groups promote a socio-technical innovation. Based on this analysis, three main future changes are associated with community renewable energy: an integral ecology approach, a stronger sense of community, and a local development opportunity for rural areas characterised by depopulation, a low employment rate, and high energy demand.
Highlights
Increasing research has focused on community renewable energy projects (CREs) as an alternative social and ecological solution to climate change
What are the factors that favoured the emergence of the CRE projects?
The current paper analyses the CRE projects in Pinerolo and Valle Maira in the Italian region of Piedmont, combining insights from the multilevel perspective (MLP) and socio-technical imaginaries perspectives. The combination of these two theoretical perspectives proved useful in unpacking the structural and cognitive dimensions involved in developing a collective socio-technical innovation such as a CRE
Summary
Increasing research has focused on community renewable energy projects (CREs) as an alternative social and ecological solution to climate change. CREs can be defined as formal or informal initiatives activated by citizens which propose collaborative solutions to facilitate the development of energy sustainability technologies on a regional basis [1]. CREs can function as energy producers or suppliers, or combine these areas to promote energy-saving projects. They can be based on local communities or communities of interest [3,4]. Scholars [9] have suggested the potential of CRE in democratising renewable energy production. The importance of the CRE model for fostering the energy transition has been formally acknowledged by the European Commission, which, with the Clean Energy Package and with Directive 2018/2001, for the first time introduced regulatory provisions to regulate this socio-technical innovation [10]
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