Renewable Energy Community: Opportunities and Threats towards Green Transition

Abstract

The European Union faces a complex economic conjunction where different factors affect and reduce the number of feasible and sustainable projects according to the legislation and the available resources. In this context, one of the available solutions to the current energy crisis could be the implementation of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) to support the European dual transition targets. The idea of an energy community is still being defined in the literature and from a legislative perspective. The increasing REC dimension and numerosity demand in-depth studies on opportunities and threats in a still unexplored market. To clarify the Italian and European state of the art of these communities, this study in the first section addresses the socioeconomic and policy conditions needed for the foundation and development of energy communities by analyzing the in-force legislation. The analysis of the current regulation has been conducted to verify how RECs affect local communities and their degrees of freedom and action in regions. The second part of the study aimed to define threats and opportunities in creating new professional profiles and local job opportunities in this new thriving market. In this study, we collected interviews and surveys with market operators, both on the service providers’ side (ESCo) and the communities’ side (promoters), to identify conflicts and advantages associated with establishing communities. The participants were initially selected through publicly available lists, and after verifying the contact correctness, they were contacted by email or phone. The results of the interviews have been processed into a SWOT analysis, showing how national policies currently need to catch up in implementing this efficiency tool and how the restricted number and the variety of the existing communities increase the difficulty in creating cohesive and universal guidelines. Finally, local markets can still not correctly manage this innovative tool’s uncertainty despite being interested in it.