In Italy, more and more energy communities also have a social purpose

In Italy there are more and more energy communities whose purpose is not only environmental, but also social.We have collected some of them.

• The number of energy communities addressing social issues (e.g. energy poverty) are growing.
• Good news but if the ministerial decree had arrived earlier, today we would have 400 more energy communities.

It is now a fact that renewable energy communities are becoming the soul of energy transition.Energy and social:after decree of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (Mase), published in January and concerning the incentive methods for shared energy, many examples are emerging of the production and self-consumption of electricity from renewable sources which also achieve social purposes, the so-called renewable and social energy communities (Cers).

Let's remember what renewable energy communities are:they are groups of subjects - natural persons, small and medium-sized enterprises, local authorities, religious institutes - who associate to share self-produced energy from renewable sources.The aim is to create “environmental, economic or social benefits”.In this sense, energy communities go beyond saving on the bill (guaranteed by the lower withdrawal of electricity from the network) and propose themselves as means of combating the  climate crisis and of energy poverty, with a view to a "just" transition for the environment and social cohesion.

To date, according to data from the Energy Services Manager (GSE), there are 154 shared energy projects (between energy communities and self-consumption projects, for example a condominium that is powered by its own photovoltaic panels) created in our country.Important numbers but which could have been much higher:the cause is to be found in bureaucratic and regulatory delays, today we could have counted at least 400 more renewable energy communities, as the numbers support Legambiente 2024 report on energy communities.

Fortunately, some energy communities became operational even before the Mase decree, becoming - despite a thousand difficulties - success stories, case studies.Among these, Cer di is known Gagliano Aterno, in the province of L'Aquila, which combines the production of shared electricity with the repopulation of the town.Then there are two examples of energy communities where the social aspect is predominant, as in the cases of the Cers of Misano Adriatico, created by the Plangreen company and which focuses on corporate welfare, and Vallette of Turin which represents a virtuous - and original - example in which a religious institute helps the most vulnerable people in the area through the production of electricity from renewable sources.

The rebirth of Gagliano Aterno

The history of Gagliano Aterno is that of a community affected by depopulation which, to reverse the trend, has (also) focused on the creation of an energy community.In 2021, two years ahead of the ministerial decree that incentivizes energy communities, the Abruzzo municipality supported the costs of two photovoltaic systems.The project, born from the bottom and developed thanks to the tool of public assemblies, from the beginning went well beyond economic convenience, transforming itself into a broader initiative aimed at the repopulation and protection of the villages in the internal areas.

Gagliano Aterno, an ancient village in the Subequana valley with less than 240 inhabitants, was sadly affected by the 2009 earthquake and records one of the highest aging indices within the region.Between 1951 and 2019, the number of residents of the municipality decreased by more than 78 percent.Today, the installed power of the two systems is equal to 50 kW but to make the community self-sufficient, 400 kW would be needed, a goal that the administration aims to achieve by reinvesting the proceeds from resale and self-consumption incentives recognized by the ministry.But it will be up to the assembly to decide how to actually use the profits:the statute of the energy community, in fact, provides for the possibility of reinvesting revenues also for needs and interventions of general interest.

Furthermore, the community moves forward thanks to the involvement of energy community experts coming from outside, i.e. from other municipalities in other Italian regions.In fact, the project has been active in Gagliano since 2022 Neo – New hospitality experiences, a school "of community activation and ecological transition", which saw young people arrive from all over Italy who chose to spend six months in the village to put their knowledge into practice.The call for the 2024 edition is also open this year, while the project expands to all the municipalities of the Subequana valley.

In Misano Adriatico, a corporate welfare model

At the gates of Misano Adriatico, in the province of Rimini, on the border with Riccione, it is located the first Italian energy community dedicated to corporate welfare.It was developed by Plangreen, a company that offers energy requalification services, in March last year, when it moved its headquarters to the industrial area of ​​Misano.The new headquarters, 95 percent autonomous thanks to solar energy, has a roof covered with photovoltaic panels, which not only meet the plant's energy needs, but also allow the sale of the surplus produced.

The proceeds derived from the injection of energy into the grid are reinvested in corporate welfare policies or distributed among employees in the form of economic benefits.Furthermore, part of the energy surplus is shared with other companies in the same industrial area.Hence the birth of a further Cer, called Chlorophyll, which extends the corporate welfare policy supported by renewable energy to a part of the Raibano industrial area, which includes several companies from Riccione, Misano and Coriano.

The redemption of churches in energy communities

There are Cers that provide churches with the opportunity to return to having an aggregative role, as in the past, with particular attention to the most fragile sections of society.Last October 30, for example, the solar panels were inaugurated on the roof of the Santa Maria di Nazareth church in Turin.Thanks to a 23 thousand euro loan from the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, the Vallette Renewable Energy Community, the first Cers in Turin, made up of the church and eight members chosen from different profiles of economic fragility.

A photovoltaic system has been installed on the roof of the church, with a capacity of approximately 20 kWp.The goal is reduce the cost of the bill of those who find themselves in economic difficulty, as well as being a concrete tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.From an economic point of view, installed solar panels allow families to save about 15 percent on electricity.Furthermore, the project experts accompanied the families on a small training course on the best times to use the photovoltaic system, as well as on the most suitable household appliances.

Among other things, in addition to financing Cer Vallette, the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation has created a guide on energy communities, continuously updated and easily downloadable from the foundation's website.The Foundation has also activated one direct counter with experts in the economic, technical, social and legal fields and has created a digital platform which, through artificial intelligence, answers the most disparate questions in the Cer field.

Confirmation of how religious structures have undertaken a far-sighted path on the topic of energy communities, revealing in certain cases a more marked sensitivity than that exhibited by many municipal administrations or companies, the book by Giuseppe Milano, engineer and environmental journalist, author of Energy communities.Social and environmental generativity experiments.In the book, Milano interviews Don Valerio Pennasso, representative of the energy community of Rodello, in the province of Cuneo.“We have triggered a new democratic process, based on a listening and discussion campaign with citizens, which aimed on the one hand to make people understand the environmental and social advantages of solarisation and on the other to illustrate the more technical and economic aspects of the project".

But in addition to supporting situations of energy hardship in the area, the Rodello energy community demonstrates that the most significant experiences are those from below.Outlining a rich and transversal future for the Cers throughout Italy, so that they increasingly become reference points for social cohesion.Because this is the only way to build a more equitable and just energy transition.