No abstract

In Italy, an increasing number of historical buildings have been abandoned in the last decades. As a response, some local administrations decided to foster renovation projects to preserve their heritage for future generations. Among them, the northern municipality of Val di Zoldo (Veneto) relies on the European Shelter Project, which covers a part of the costs of renovating an ancient private barn called Mas di Sabe, which the community considers an identity symbol of local history and culture. For this reason, the local administration decided to acquire the structure through donations and expropriation, activating a commoning process of the Mas di Sabe. This process is based on the involvement of local inhabitants to identify the building’s future uses, which will inform the renovation project and the integration of renewable energy plants. Through thirteen semi-structured interviews, the study investigates how the collective memories of the building influence and are influenced by the commoning process of the Mas di Sabe. By analyzing the results and identifying five categories (future visions, collective memory, commoning process, energy, and resources), the study shows that collective memory and commoning process have a crucial role in determining people’s visions and imaginaries on historical buildings’ renovation.

The current paper contributes to the literature on community renewable energy by considering two projects developed in the north-west of Italy, in the Piedmont region. Community renewable energy is increasingly regarded by academic literature and policy discourse as crucial to ensure a socially and environmentally just energy transition. In spite of the growing diffusion of community renewable energy projects, there is still a lack of theoretically informed analyses. Our article tries to address this gap by combining two theoretical perspectives: the multilevel perspective and the socio-technical imaginaries approach. Applying the first perspective helps reconstruct the context and circumstances that have permitted the Piedmont’s energy community projects to emerge. Particular attention is given to the windows of opportunity created by the Regional Law 12/2018, which acknowledged the establishment of energy communities for the first time in Italy. The socio-technical imaginaries perspective allows the identification of collective ideas and meanings that emerge when individuals or groups promote a socio-technical innovation. Based on this analysis, three main future changes are associated with community renewable energy: an integral ecology approach, a stronger sense of community, and a local development opportunity for rural areas characterised by depopulation, a low employment rate, and high energy demand.