COME-RES | Italy

The Italian Stakeholder Desk

In Italy, the development of RECs is still at an early stage, although there is a large potential. While Community hydro schemes have existed in the Alpine region since the beginning of the last century, cooperatives including citizens’ financial involvement and ownership have just recently started to appear. They are mostly renewable energy initiatives and differ from the Italian historical cooperatives in that they do not benefit from a special legal status and cannot own a local distribution grid.

There is an estimated potential for the creation of nearly 130,000 energy communities, but a lack of national regulation prevents this form of initiative. Formal recognition of RECs can only be found in the National Energy Strategy (SEN) of 2017 and in the draft National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP). Recently, some Italian regions started to establish regulations or procedures for local REC projects: Piedmont, one of the model regions in COME RES, is the first Italian region which has established a law on energy communities including criteria and methods for their financial support. Also, the regional council of Apulia has published a law that contains rules for the "Promotion of the establishment of energy communities". The COME RES target region, will financially support, the establishment of RECs, considering local conditions, to favour disadvantaged areas. Specific regulation have also been enacted at the national level to support renewable energy communities through specific forms of incentives and the implementation of REDII is underway.

In Italy approximately 90 stakeholders have formally joined the COME RES country desk, as a part of a wider interest group of 180 public administrations, companies, environmental and professional associations, citizens, and researchers. A core group of stakeholders will be involved in the desk activities more related to regional contexts, while wider participation is foreseen for the thematic workshops and policy labs. The purpose of the desk is to encourage the process of spreading RECs at the local and national scale by identifying barriers, opportunities, measures, and solutions. Additionally, it aims to exchange experiences and transfer good practices to different territorial contexts and, to eventually provide recommendations based on the evidence emerging during these activities.

The Italian COME RES Stakeholder Desk is co-led by ENEA and Ecoazioni.

Click here to find more information on the kick-off meeting, including the session recordings.

Resources

Policy Brief

Policy Brief 4: Short-term actions to meet long-term visions

Dutch English German Italian Latvian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Spanish

COME RES has been facilitating the market uptake of...

Publication Date: 27 Feb 2023

Author: Arthur Hinsch (ICLEI Europe), Michael Krug (FUB), Maria Rosaria Di Nucci (FUB) and Lucy Russell (ICLEI Europe)

The Italian Stakeholder Desk

Resources

Policy Brief 4: Short-term actions to meet long-term visions

Factsheet 4: The COME RES Stakeholder Desks – paving the way for renewable energy communities

Factsheet 3: Transferring Renewable Energy Communities and Inspiring Action

D8.7 Advancing Renewable Energy Communities in Europe: Affordable Energy. Local Ownership. Resilience.

Policy Brief 3: Close, but not quite there

Agenda: Second Italian country desk meeting

Agenda: Second Italian policy lab meeting

Factsheet 2: Municipalities and renewable energy communities – a perfect match

Factsheet 1: The Potential of Community Projects in the Renewable Energy Sector

Summary Report: First Italian Thematic Workshop and Policy Lab

Comunicato Stampa: Primo Incontro Tematico e Policy Lab del Desk Italiano

Policy Brief 1: Renewable Energy Communities - Are we nearly there?

Kick Off Meeting del Desk Italiano construiamo le Comunita' Energetiche Rinnovabili

Summary of the Italian Stakeholder Desk kick off

Italian Stakeholder Desk kick off meeting presentations

Agenda of the Italian Stakeholder Desk kick off