Status and Evolution of the Community Energy Sector in Italy

Chiara Candelise,Gianluca Ruggieri

doi:10.3390/en13081888

Chiara Candelise, Gianluca Ruggieri

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en13081888

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Abstract

Community energy (CE) initiatives have been progressively spreading across Europe and are increasingly proposed as innovative and alternative approaches to guarantee higher citizen participation in the transition toward cleaner energy systems. This paper focuses the attention on Italy, a Southern European country characterized by relatively low CE sector development. It fills a gap in the literature by eliciting and presenting novel and comprehensive evidence on recent Italian CE sector developments. Through a stepwise approach it systematically maps and reviews Italian CE initiatives, to then focus the attention on three specific case studies to further explore conditions for development as well as of success within the Italian energy system. The analysis presents an Italian CE sector still at its niche level, characterized by small initiatives largely dependent on national photovoltaics (PV) policy support. It also points out how only larger initiatives, able to operate at national scale, developing multiple projects and differentiating their activities have managed to continue growing at the time of discontinuity of policy support and contraction of the national renewable energy market. Recent EU and national legislative development might support revived development of CE initiatives in Italy.

Highlights

Commitments and efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as increasing concerns over energy security have triggered the transitioning of the European Union (EU) energy system toward a higher proportion of clean energy generation and reduction of energy use through the implementation of energy efficiency measures [1,2,3]
We used the evidence gathered through the systematic review of the Italian community energy (CE) initiative to explore their characteristics, dynamics of development, and the forms and level of citizens’ involvement
This paper elicits and presents novel evidence on CE initiatives that emerged in Italy in the 2000s, filling a gap in the literature to date

Summary

Introduction

Commitments and efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as increasing concerns over energy security have triggered the transitioning of the European Union (EU) energy system toward a higher proportion of clean energy generation and reduction of energy use through the implementation of energy efficiency measures [1,2,3]. While consumers’ participation to energy transition is increasingly concerning the policy makers [8], community energy (CE) and shared ownership approaches for investments in the energy sector have been developing worldwide [9,10,11]. They enable citizens to collectively develop and manage energy projects or services, presenting a different model of development and ownership than traditional business organizations [12,13].

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