Addressing Energy Poverty in the Energy Community: Assessment of Energy, Environmental, Economic, and Social Benefits for an Italian Residential Case Study

Abstract

Although a clear definition of energy poverty has not been reported in the scientific literature or in general energy directives, this condition affects about 10% of European people. During the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the increase in energy bill costs due to energy conflicts has determined the increment of energy poverty. The Renewable Energy Directive, that defines a new legal entity named Renewable Energy Community as a new end-users’ organization, recognizes the chance for low-income households to benefit from being able to access affordable energy tariffs and energy efficiency measures thanks to these new entities. Thus, this paper analyses the energy, economic, and environmental performances of a renewable energy community composed of three residential users distributed in two buildings located in the south of Italy, and one of these buildings is equipped by a rooftop photovoltaic plant. The plants were modelled and simulated through HOMERPRO simulation software while the building energy loads are real and were imported from an energy distributor dataset and were processed in the MATLAB simulation interface. The analysis concerned the comparison of the energy performance achieved by one case in which no renewable plants were installed, and by another case in which the end-users took part in the renewable energy community by sharing the photovoltaic “produced” electricity. The investigation was conducted in terms of the quantity of electricity imported from the power grid and consumed on-site, the avoided emissions, and the operating costs. The business plan has been devoted to defining the advantages of the energy community for vulnerable end-users in a popular neighborhood council estate by evaluating the social energy poverty indexes. The results showed that through the renewable energy community, a mitigation of energy poverty is obtained within a range of 12–16%.

Interacting locally, acting globally: trust and proximity in social networks for the development of energy communities

“…Further future research can shed more light on the trade-off between environmental and social sustainability, as the higher environmental quality that may be achieved via energy communities may come at the expense of higher social inequalities (i.e., by crowding out younger generations). Existing studies report only the benefit in terms of a reduction of energy poverty associated with the development of energy communities 41 due to a reduction of the energy bill , but the sample socio-demographic characteristics of the citizens involved in this project is also worthy of investigation. On the one hand, the energy cost will be lower for energy community participants, on the other hand this effect might exacerbate economic inequality and disparities with those not taking part into the project.…”

Sharing Is Caring: Exploring Distributed Solar Photovoltaics and Local Electricity Consumption through a Renewable Energy Community

“…Case studies, such as the REC Telheiras explored herein, illustrate the concept's applicability, and may pave the way for other neighborhoods, cities, and regions to produce their own energy communities. In the context of low incomes, rising energy costs, and low energy performance of buildings, many European Union [79] and Portuguese [80] citizens are in energy poverty. Renewable energy communities can partially address this problem through the participation of energy-poor households in energy-sharing schemes and through other local energy poverty mitigation activities.…”

Energy transactions among smart buildings based on social preferences

“…In other words, an electric car cannot be charged and discharged simultaneously in each hour. Constraints (24) and (25) are related to the maximum power that each energy group can sell or buy from other energy groups. Constraint ( 26) is also a logical relation that expresses the impossibility of buying and selling energy from other energy groups simultaneously in each hour.…”

“…It is important to evaluate the economic, environmental, technical, and social impacts of such communities, while considering the various technical and social arrangements that are possible [23]. Energy poverty affects around 10% of the population in Europe, although there is no clear definition of the term in the scientific literature or energy directives [24]. These references provide insights into diverse aspects of sustainable energy transitions in ECs.…”

“…Refs. [21] and [22] focus on the potential of solar fuels and the comprehensive assessment of wind energy's impacts in ECs, while [23] and [24] underscore the importance of evaluating the multifaceted impacts of ECs and addressing energy poverty in Europe, respectively.…”