The great challenge of tackling climate change is leading to a paradigm shift in energy production from the dominant, highly centralized model based on fossil fuels to a decentralized, low-carbon model based on renewable energy sources.

However, this new configuration significantly increases the complexity of the issues to be addressed, simply because of the need to coordinate the many local actors and their interests, which are not always convergent.

The aim of the research activity is to analyze the opportunities and critical issues in the contexts studied, trying to identify the conditions that are favorable to local energy cooperation (the key enabling factors) and those that, on the contrary, slow down the development of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs).

In carrying out the research, attention was paid to two potentially critical phenomena that require preventive action in territorial strategies for energy transition: 1) the balance between the increasing diffusion of renewable energy plants and the protection of the territorial heritage; 2) the systematic pursuit of a reduction in economic and social inequalities reflected in the persistence of energy poverty.

These preliminary considerations urgently raise the question of the relationship between energy programming and territorial planning, the integration of which can be a decisive factor in the development and consolidation of RECs over time, as well as in ensuring that communities help prevent and mitigate the social tensions and environmental dilemmas at local level that low-carbon policies can spark.

The analysis of programming and planning tools at different scales of application led to the specification of three innovative planning approaches that are proposed as reference ‘conceptual frameworks’ for community energy promotion activities, starting from the detailed scale (a community organization plan) that extends the scope of the statutes and regulations of individual RECs) up to and including local community covenants, through a level that encompasses various conventional areas but does not exceed the coordinating capacity of a reference territorial authority (Local Community Energy Action Plan), to experimentation with a Territorial Strategies for Energy Transition that can combine the innovations generated in individual REC experiences with the reorientation of energy systems required by the challenges of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The Report is available on the Italian site