Renewable Energy Communities as Leverage for The Energy Transition and The Fight Against Energy Poverty: the Situation in Italy

Abstract

We are facing a period of epochal changes. Meteorological and climatic emergencies and global geopolitical structures pose the challenge of radically changing the sources of energy supply by abandoning hydrocarbons after 150 years and coal after millennia. Cities already have, and will assume more and more in the future, an essential role in the fight against climate change both because it is expected that in 2050 the majority of the population will live in urban areas and because cities already play an active role in climate change becoming hot spots. Urban areas can and must become areas of electricity production, or at least in equilibrium between consumption and production, rather than just being consumers. A rapid historical excursus is made on the concept of quality of life applied to the structure and function of the city up to the paradigm, still current, between ecological complexity and pure function that goes beyond the population's well-being. Urban areas have developed mainly pursuing commercial and industrial interests. In the immediate future, they will have to develop pursuing environmental, energy, and human interests. The problem of intervening in pre-existing urban fabrics and the historic centers of European cities is analyzed. Two approaches that can coexist were analyzed: Renewable Energy Communities and Near Zero Emission Buildings. Transforming all buildings in the consolidated city into NZEBs is neither feasible nor sustainable, and the goal of transforming cities into electricity producers risks failing. Energy communities can help solve the problem by building medium and large power photovoltaic systems on public buildings or areas such as car parks and roads. Finally, the study outlines some interventions considered essential for solving the energy problem in urban areas and its impact on the community system.