Motivations for participation in energy communities: evidence from Czech municipalities and multi-apartment buildings using a mixed-methods approach

The article juxtaposes the regulatory approach to small renewable energy sources and energy communities in the European Union, Australia, and New Zealand, highlighting such matters as the nature, character, and scope of the regulatory model of renewable energy sector. The paper also analyses energy communities in the past, current and drafted European law (as in the "Clean Energy for all Europeans" package) as well as discussing relevant legislation and policies on small renewable energy sources and energy communities in Australia and New Zealand. In this context, this article reviews the possibility of exporting the European model on energy communities outside the EU.

Just sharing? Energy injustices in the Norwegian solar policy mix for collective prosuming

The chapter examines two case studies of renewable energy communities (RECs) carried out in two different territorial and socio-economic contexts: (i) MES Rec (Sicily, Southern Italy); (ii) RIC Rec, in the province of Trento (Northern Italy), fostered by the historical energy cooperative ‘RIC Rec Co-Op.’ Using Ostrom’s concept of polycentric governance and a comparative analysis, the authors highlight the historical and social conditions that have affected the two REC organisational practices, as well as the transformative effects on the urban and spatial level that RECs are producing. The different legal forms of the promoters of the energy communities (cooperative for RIC REC CO-OP and philanthropic body for the MES Rec Foundation, with which a social ESCo is associated) imply a diverse organisational practice both in the management of the REC and its services and in the participatory mechanisms of the citizens/users. Despite these differences, both RECs are based on the idea of energy as a common good and on a community logic that makes REC a model of socio-technical innovation to strengthen community and local welfare and generate positive externalities.

Renewable energy communities (RECs) are alternatives toward sustainable production and consumption pathways. In 2020, Italy implemented the EU Directive 2018/2001, defining a common framework for promoting energy from renewable sources. The “Famiglia di Maria”, a foundation dealing with social issues in San Giovanni a Teduccio, Napoli (Italy), in collaboration with “Legambiente” and “Con il Sud” Foundations, released the first Solidarity Oriented Renewable Energy Community project in Italy. Therefore, by applying social life cycle assessment (s-LCA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies, this study aims to: (i) promote the dissemination of RECs in the Italian and European contexts, (ii) suggest REC scenarios for the best social and environmental solutions, and (iii) support the policymakers for sustainable local development. Some key results show that the solidarity-oriented project has already produced mature outcomes about community cohesion. In contrast, technical skills and awareness about environmental issues still need to be further developed and shared among the stakeholders. Finally, social and environmental indicators converge on the self-consumption model as a feasible alternative for energy justice, community empowerment, and economic and market competition independence.

Renewable energy communities are considered as key elements for transforming the present fossil fuel-based energy systems of islands into renewable-based energy systems. This study shows how renewable energy communities can be deployed in the Maltese context to achieve higher penetration of residential-scale photovoltaic systems. Case studies for five renewable energy communities in the Maltese LV distribution network have been analyzed in detail. A novel community battery energy storage sizing strategy was proposed to determine the optimal storage capacity at each energy community. The main objective of the community battery storage in each REC is to minimize the reverse power injection in the grid (minimize the total reverse energy and reverse peak power values), as well as to reduce the peak evening electricity demand. The optimal sizes for communal BESSs were determined to be of 57 kWh (EC 1), 55 kWh (EC 2), 31 kWh (EC 3), 37 kWh (EC 4) and 10 kWh (EC 5), respectively. The community storage systems were observed to reduce the overall impact of all five energy communities on the grid infrastructure. Power system simulations were performed for a typical spring day to evaluate the impact of communal BESS placement on the node voltages for all five energy communities. The results showed that the community storage was more effective at reducing the node rms voltage magnitudes when deployed at the end of the respective energy communities, rather than at the beginning of the community. During peak generation hours, reductions of up to 0.48% in the node rms voltage magnitudes were observed. This contrasts with reductions of only 0.19% when the community storage was deployed at the beginning of the energy communities.

Renewable and local energy communities are viewed as a key component to the success of the energy transition. In this paper, we estimate wind power potential for such communities. Acquiring the most accurate weather data is important to support decision-making. We identify the most reliable publicly available wind speed data and demonstrate a case study for typical energy community scenarios such as a single commercial turbine at coastal and inland locations in Ireland. We describe our assessment methodology to evaluate the quality of the wind source data by comparing it with meteorological observations. We make recommendations on which publicly available wind data sources, such as reanalysis data sources (MERRA-2, ERA-5), PVGIS, and NEWA are best suited to support Renewable Energy Communities interested in exploring the possibilities of renewable wind energy. ERA5 is deemed to be the most suitable wind data source for these locations, while an anomaly is noted in the NEWA data.

It is crucial that the energy transition enfolds democratically, to increase its legitimacy and improve its outcomes. Although practitioners and scholars increasingly point to renewable energy communities (RECs) as legitimate agents for governing a democratic energy transition, RECs' democratic practices are poorly understood, which challenges assumptions about their legitimacy. We therefore analyzed how and to what extent democratic legitimacy is being pursued and met by RECs in their governance of renewable energy generation projects. Our comparative case study examined four different RECs in Utrecht, The Netherlands. We found that three out of the four studied RECs broadly meet the principles of energy democracy in the initial, developing and implementation phase of their energy generation projects. Significant differences between principles and RECs were found, which refutes the simplistic general assumption that RECs are either fully democratically legitimate or are not democratically legitimate at all. In reality, RECs face several trade-offs between democratic principles, which arise from the different legitimacy needs related to the REC's stage of maturity and the type of energy source it uses. To overcome these trade-offs and uphold legitimacy internally as well as with various stakeholders, RECs strategically organize participation and decision making in different governance spaces and prioritize certain specific legitimacy principles over others. Combining the concepts of energy democracy and democratic legitimacy has brought novel theoretical insights to the fore, and we recommend other researchers to further bridge these distinct but related fields of study.

Renewable energy communities, first outlined in the European Directives and recently transposed into the Italian regulatory framework, are introduced as innovative entities capable of fostering cooperation between active and passive users involved in the production, sharing, and use of locally produced energy according to innovative management schemes. Renewable energy communities empower the end-customers. Citizens and legal entities are committed to a rational and economical use of energy to achieve the community’s climate neutrality goals and pursue the ecological and energy transition objectives defined in the national recovery and resilience plan. In the future, a significant number of energy communities different actors participating from the residential, industrial, commercial, and tertiary sectors are expected to develop within city districts or in suburban settings. This paper proposes and develops a methodology capable of bridging the complexity that can characterise the prototyping, implementation, and management of an energy community within a positive energy district. The approach presented here can also be extended to other application contexts in urban or rural settings. Requirements and best practices for administrative, technical, and technological management have been identified to achieve this goal. Italy is one of the first states to embed in its regulatory framework the European Directives regarding renewable energy communities. These will have a significant impact on network management models and will provide new ways for creating social inclusion that may help achieve climate sustainability goals. A governance model has been formalised for the empowerment of energy community members, outlining a framework useful for planning the proper implementation of a renewable energy community according to current Italian regulations.

The transition from the current energy architecture to a new model is evident and inevitable. The coming future promises innovative and increasingly rigorous projects and challenges for everyone involved in this value chain. Technological developments have allowed the emergence of new concepts, such as renewable energy communities, decentralized renewable energy production, and even energy storage. These factors have incited consumers to play a more active role in the electricity sector and contribute considerably to the achievement of environmental objectives. With the introduction of renewable energy communities, the need to develop new management and optimization tools, mainly in generation and load management, arises. Thus, this paper proposes a platform capable of clustering consumers and prosumers according to their energy and geographical characteristics to create renewable energy communities. Thus, this paper proposes a platform capable of clustering consumers and prosumers according to their energy and geographical characteristics to create renewable energy communities. Moreover, through this platform, the identification (homogeneous energy communities, mixed energy communities, and self-sufficient energy communities) and the size of each community are also obtained. Three algorithms are considered to achieve this purpose: K-means, density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise, and linkage algorithms (single-link, complete-link, average-link, and Wards’ method). With this work, it is possible to verify each algorithm’s behavior and effectiveness in clustering the players into communities. A total of 233 members from 9 cities in the northern region of Portugal (Porto District) were considered to demonstrate the application of the proposed platform. The results demonstrate that the linkage algorithms presented the best classification performance, achieving 0.631 by complete-ink in the Silhouette score, 2124.174 by Ward’s method in the Calinski-Harabasz index, and 0.329 by single-link on the Davies-Bouldin index. Additionally, the developed platform demonstrated adequacy, versatility, and robustness concerning the classification and sizing of renewable energy communities.

An energy, environmental, management and economic analysis of energy efficient system towards renewable energy community: The case study of multi-purpose energy community

This study investigates the integration of renewable energy communities (RECs) in large urban districts, using a GIS-based approach to evaluate various aggregation strategies and their effects on energy and economic performance. To assess the reliability of the developed method of RECs planning in urban areas, a case study of a large district located in Naples (Italy) is analysed. This district is characterised by 730 buildings comprising residential buildings, offices, and shops. Two aggregation approaches are compared: uncontrolled and controlled aggregation. In the uncontrolled approach, where buildings are randomly grouped in RECs, significant variability in energy self-consumption and self-sufficiency is observed, with individual RECs showing considerable performance discrepancies. In contrast, controlled aggregation methods – such as balancing and clustering based on energy needs, peak demand, and roof area – reduce variability of energy and economic outcomes. The case study results reveal that while uncontrolled aggregation leads to higher economic uncertainty, the controlled approach minimises financial risk by stabilising payback times. A sensitivity analysis indicates that the number of RECs significantly impacts both energy and economic performance, with a higher number of RECs generally decreasing self-consumption and increasing payback time. The case study reveals that controlled aggregation scenarios achieve a self-consumption rate of 100 %, with no variability in the performance of individual RECs. Self-sufficiency reaches 50 %, with a variability of ±10 %, while the payback period averages 8.5 years, varying by ±2 years. These findings highlight the importance of strategic aggregation methods in optimising REC integration within urban districts and provide valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers. • A new GIS-based approach plans REC integration in large urban areas. • Energy-economic impacts of uncontrolled and controlled REC aggregations. • A Monte Carlo-based approach assesses RECs performance under random aggregations. • Clustering with k-means and optimisation methods simulate controlled aggregations. • Controlled aggregation enhances performance and eliminates REC variability.

• Policy development process of Renewable energy community in Europe and Italy. • Developed the latest Italian renewable energy community database. • Established the Key Performance Indicators framework of renewable energy community. • Through analysis of detailed database, explored the quantities parameters relationship. 2050 Carbon emissions have become an urgent problem for all the countries across EU. Conserving renewable energy in buildings has emerged as one of the primary strategies for reducing the greenhouse gases. Developing and spread self-sufficient energy communities integrated with renewable energy source has emerged as more impacting approach for lowering the impact of the building sector. The latest Renewable Energy Directive (RED) III published in October 2023, increased European Union’s ambition for renewable energy transition. Italy keeps updating its regulations following the directive and aims to cover 55.4% of its gross final electricity consumption with renewable energy by 2030. The research aims at analyzing the policy trajectory, energy community transition status and potential challenge through policy analysis and case studies analysis. This research illustrated the process of the policy and legislation refining and regulating renewable energy communities (RECs) and compared the difference from EU to Italy. RECs database, key performance indicators configuration and data analysis were carried out to systematically conclude the REC developing status. This work presents in a unique way the state of the art of the REC, with a focus on the Italian context, and serves as a reference point that captures the current status and outlines possible future developments. Driven by incentive policies, approximately 55% of RECs in Italy are located in small municipalities with populations under 5,000. Among them, only 26.4% are project-specific RECs focused on individual buildings or energy systems. Therefore, both a general REC database and a detailed project-level database are established in this study. Through database comparison, eight key performance indicators were collected and analyzed to depict the typical RECs status in order to support policymakers and stakeholders to revise and ameliorate standards and procedures to promote and spread the transition towards renewable energy communities.

Energy Communities (EC) are intended as legal entities that can ensure environmental, economic, and social benefits for energy exchanges between its members. The Italian legislation has recently introduced incentives to Renewable Energy Communities (REC). This work analyses the case study of the REC in Villar Pellice (Turin) and defines a methodology to assess its technical-economic feasibility. The hourly energy consumption and the local renewable energy production are assessed through a place-based methodology, considering different category of end users (municipalities, residential dwelling, companies), and obtaining data from available online database. The REC energy performance is assessed through the self-consumption and the self-sufficiency indexes. Besides, cost-optimal analysis evaluates its economic feasibility, considering investment costs and economic incentives. Several interventions are hypothesized to compare possible REC scenarios (e.g., photovoltaic panels and storage systems installation, energy efficiency measures for public lighting, and different configurations of end users). Results show that REC allows to aggregate stakeholders, ensuring economic advantages and environmental benefits. The methodology applied in this work can support the design phase of the RECs. Its flexibility makes it adaptable to different territorial and regulatory contexts, in evaluating the optimal REC configuration to maximize revenues from the incentive and reach the highest level of energy independence.

Renewable energy communities (REC) are one of the instruments to increase uptake of renewable energy (RE) sources. The EU policy underlines the necessity of citizen wide involvement in the energy system transformation processes to meet the renewable energy (RE) targets. In the article, the energy community is understood as mostly locally-rooted form of co-operation in order to jointly use RE sources with the aim of producing RE dominantly for collective self-consumption and providing socio economic benefits for REC participants and particular local areas. The article estimates the potential of the households regarding rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) uptake in Latvia. Evaluation is based on the cascade approach: starting with the technical solar PV potential, housing type analysis, then estimating the financial capacity of households and household investments statistics, finally the household willingness to invest in joint energy production is considered. As a result, REC potential to attract additional household investments to increase solar PV electricity production is calculated in the range from 43.69 MEUR to 87.42 MEUR. The REC potential to scale up RE in power generation is calculated for 76.6 GWh electricity in 2030, or 11.6% of the additional electricity from solar PV installations planned in the national energy-climate plan scenario. REC facilitating is understood as one of the policy wheels of municipal sustainable energy and climate action plans. By applying the regional model for climate change mitigation measure impact evaluation, the potential contribution of REC in greenhouse gas emission reduction and providing socio economic benefits for both REC participants and municipality are evaluated at the city level.

The significant impact of building energy consumption is widely acknowledged. Among various sustainable solutions, the growing number of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) highlights the potential of citizen-led initiatives towards a more sustainable future. To thoroughly and accurately analyze the behavior of a REC, it is crucial to perform highly detailed simulations of the community, ideally on an hourly basis. This requires estimating both the energy production from renewable sources – primarily photovoltaic (PV) panels – and the energy consumption by users on an hourly scale. However, obtaining hourly consumption data from REC members remains challenging, hindering accurate feasibility studies for developing new communities.To address the gap in predictive simulation of community energy behavior, a new analysis workflow has been developed. This study employs Building dynamic Energy Simulations (BES) to model hourly thermal energy requirements of buildings and subsequently converts these requirements into electrical loads by simulating the corresponding HVAC systems. By incorporating other buildings electrical loads (such as lighting and appliances, among others), it is possible to reconstruct the overall electrical consumption of each user, regardless of their use case (e.g., school, office, residential). Therefore, using a MATLAB code, all energy flows, including shared energy, can be studied on an hourly basis, along with the economic outcomes derived from cash flows for sold energy and, if applicable, state incentives for shared energy.A case study was developed for a REC composed of various users, each associated with different photovoltaic systems. The new methodology was applied by varying certain input data, allowing for the prediction of the REC configuration that optimizes shared energy.This methodology provides solid predictive results and serves as a practical tool for simulating an energy community. It is particularly useful when electrical consumption data is unavailable due to new construction, data unavailability, or limited time and economic resources for gathering hourly consumption data for each user.As a future development, this methodology is expected to be integrated with machine learning techniques to identify the most efficient compositions of energy communities to maximize shared energy.