Community energy in Italy: lessons from existing evidence

Background and purpose of the workThe transition to decarbonized energy systems has to date been led by major investors and large companies, but smaller players such as citizens, communities as well as local authorities are... [ view full abstract ]

Background and purpose of the work

The transition to decarbonized energy systems has to date been led by major investors and large companies, but smaller players such as citizens, communities as well as local authorities are increasingly playing an active role in delivering clean energy investments. As such, they could fully harness benefits and incomes originating from energy investments implemented in their premises and territory. Indeed, the last decade has seen the development of community energy and shared ownership approaches for investments in the energy sector [1-3]. Such novel approaches are deemed to be suitable alternatives to traditional business models and powerful means to allow citizens’ access and participation to benefits and incomes originating from distributed generation and energy efficiency measures. However, despite its progressive development, community energy sector is a still quite novel and unevenly spread across Europe (more developed in north Europe, particularly in countries such as Denmark, Germany and the UK, and far less in Southern Europe, including Italy [4]).

With the overarching aim of better understanding conditions for community energy sector growth in countries characterized by lower level of deployment, this paper focuses the attention on Italy. It provides a comprehensive and structured evidence of community energy initiatives emerged in the country within the last decade. As experienced in other north European countries [5, 6] they can take multiple forms depending on the level of citizens’ financial involvement, ownership and co-determination implied by the initiative’s legal structure and governance, on the territorial focus of the project as well as the type of activity proposed. Objectives of this study are to analyse under which conditions they have been implemented, how they differ in terms of process and approaches adopted and how and to which extent they benefit citizens and local communities.

Methodology and initial results

Evidence on Italian community energy initiatives has been gathered along [7]:

• the process dimension, by looking at how the initiatives have been developed and to which extent they have been and are participatory (gathering data on dynamics of creation, type of activity, organizational structure and financing);
• the outcome dimension, by providing an analysis of the outcomes originating from the project and the benefits for citizens and communities involved, gathering data on monetary benefits (i.e. returns on investment offered, including potential saving on electricity bills) and any other services and benefits accruing from the project (e.g. local income generation, additional energy or community services provided). 

Data has been collected through systematic review of the initiatives, based on web searches and grey literature, and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders directly involved in the initiatives as well as with experts in the field.

The study presents results of a detailed analysis of fourteen Italian community energy initiatives identified which, despite showing common trends, have been developed and implemented following different processes and providing different outcomes. Main findings include evidence of: active role of Italian municipalities in promoting and/or facilitating community energy initiatives; a prevalent focus on renewable electricity production projects (PV in particular); legal form being less relevant than initiatives’ objectives and financing/ownership structure in guaranteeing participation and co-determination of citizens; different outcomes (both monetary returns and in terms of wider energy and societal services) for different implementation typologies.

The paper provides a comprehensive characterization of the energy community sector in Italy, not yet available in the academic literature. It contributes to energy economics and policy arena in Europe by providing new, fresh data on a topic which currently lack of structured and robust evidence.

REFERENCES

1.            IEA RETD TCP, Revitalisation of local economy by development of renewable energy: good practices and case studies (REvLOCAL), in IEA Renewable Energy Technology Deployment Technology Collaboration Programme (IEA RETD TCP), Utrecht, 2016. 2016.

2.            ILO, Providing clean energy access through cooperatives, in International Labour Office Cooperative Unit Report. Green Jobs Programme.Geneva, 2013. 2013.

3.            van der Schoor, T. and B. Scholtens, Power to the people: Local community initiatives and the transition to sustainable energy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2015. 43(0): p. 666-675.

4.            Huybrechts, B. and S. Mertens de Wilmars, The relevance of the cooperative model in the field of renewable energy. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 2014. 85(2): p. 193-212.

5.            Seyfang, G., J.J. Park, and A. Smith, A thousand flowers blooming? An examination of community energy in the UK. Energy Policy, 2013. 61(0): p. 977-989.

6.            Yildiz, Ö., et al., Renewable energy cooperatives as gatekeepers or facilitators? Recent developments in Germany and a multidisciplinary research agenda. Energy Research & Social Science, 2015. 6: p. 59-73.

7.            Walker, G. and P. Devine-Wright, Community renewable energy: What should it mean? Energy Policy, 2008. 36(2): p. 497-500.