Paving the way for the widespread activation of renewable energy communities in Italy [Verso un’attivazione diffusa delle comunità energetiche rinnovabili in Italia]

The establishment of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) requires a proper legal and management framework encompassing (i) an adequate legal and regulatory arrangement, (ii) an effective collective energy production and self-consumption and (iii) a sustainable business plan. The best combination of legal, technical and economic factors is vital to ensure the maximisation of energy self-production and self-consumption and an adequate redistribution of social net benefits. The design and implementation of such a setting require considerable managerial effort and an initial investment. Financial support for feasibility studies and legal expenditures, as provided by several Italian regions, can serve as a catalyst for the widespread generation of RECs. Most regions have launched calls for funding with specific features, requirements and criteria addressed to public and/or private actors. As Italy is strongly regionalised in several public sectors, a wide range of differentiated regional approaches and procedures have been observed. Based on a comparative analysis of the RECs’ legal and regulatory regional provisions and the regional calls for funding the creation of RECs, this article presents (i) a clustering of Italian regions based on the enforcement of regional laws and structural funds, (ii) an analysis of the correlation between allocated funds, population, household income and energy expenditure, and installed power, (iii) an analysis of requirements, criteria and rewards detected in the different calls for funding and (iv) an assessment of different scoring systems to reveal how they affect public funds’ distribution. As a main result, our analysis reveals the heterogeneity and fragmentation of regional public action.