A Clean Energy Atlas for Energy Communities in Piedmont Region (Italy)

Abstract

The energy community is defined as a "cooperative/partnership/non-profit organization of final customers (municipalities, public and private entities, citizens) aimed at achieving energy independence in order to guarantee energy security, low environment impact and affordable energy costs". This work defines a place-based methodology for the dimensioning of energy communities, according to the requirements of the first Italian law on energy communities issued by the Piedmont Region. The aim is to evaluate the correct size and optimal aggregation of municipalities for future energy communities, considering the energy consumptions and the renewable energy sources available in a territory. In particular, with a place-based methodology, the electricity potentially produced by forest and agricultural biomass, waste, wind, solar and hydraulic sources was evaluated, in accordance with regulations and constrains. Thus, a renewable energy sources atlas was implemented to provide a tool for the estimation of energy, environmental and socio-economic performance indexes of the municipalities of the Piedmont Region. In conclusion, considering the energy production, productivity and consumption of each municipality and the requirements of energy communities, a tool to optimally aggregate municipalities for creating energetic communities is described.

The Role of Organised Civil Society in the Implementation of the Renewable Energy Transition and Renewable Energy Communities: A Qualitative Assessment

“…However, results explicitly addressing the role or qualitative potential of organised civil society within Renewable Energy Communities and their implementation are minimal in the initial sample and absent in the final filtered sample, showing a limited concern over this specific topic in the published academic literature. Three sources were identified by the whole search: (Mutani G. et al, 2019 [18]; Mutani G. et al, 2020 [19]; and Mutani G. et al, 2022 [20]). All three of them resulted in the initial outcome of the search as providing a definition of energy community as a 'cooperative/partnership/non-profit organization of final customers (municipalities, public and private entities, and citizens) aimed at achieving energy independence to guarantee energy security, low environmental impact, and affordable energy costs' (the same definition is included within the abstracts of all the three papers).…”

Statistical Data Analysis for Energy Communities

“…The achievement of the best accuracy depends on the reliability of data and databases. In this study, to enhance pragmatism and ensure reproducibility, variables were obtained from institutional open-access databases [17][18][19], geographical and environmental data were calculated using well established procedure with GIS software [20,21], while electric consumption observations were obtained from the database provided by the Piedmont Region technical office, which collects energy data directly from the Distribution System Operators (DSOs) [22].…”

Legal Provisions and Market Conditions for Energy Communities in Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Turkey: A Comparative Assessment

“…In addition to the Legislative Decree 162/19, some regions adopted specific regulations on the subject, such as the regional law 3 August 2018, no. 12 of Piedmont [103]. The law defined and regulated energy communities.…”

“…According to this regional law, energy communities are not-for-profit organizations able to generate and exchange energy from renewable energy sources rather than fossil fuels. They have the right to enter into agreements with the national electricity, gas, and water authority [103].…”