IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i8p1888-d344923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Status and Evolution of the Community Energy Sector in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Chiara Candelise

    (GREEN, the Centre for Research in Geography, Resources, Environment, Energy and Networks, Bocconi University, 20136 Milan, Italy
    Imperial College Centre for Energy Policy and Technology (ICEPT), Imperial College London, London SW7 1NE, UK)

  • Gianluca Ruggieri

    (Dipartimento di Scienze Teoriche e Applicate, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy)

Abstract

Community energy (CE) initiatives have been progressively spreading across Europe and are increasingly proposed as innovative and alternative approaches to guarantee higher citizen participation in the transition toward cleaner energy systems. This paper focuses the attention on Italy, a Southern European country characterized by relatively low CE sector development. It fills a gap in the literature by eliciting and presenting novel and comprehensive evidence on recent Italian CE sector developments. Through a stepwise approach it systematically maps and reviews Italian CE initiatives, to then focus the attention on three specific case studies to further explore conditions for development as well as of success within the Italian energy system. The analysis presents an Italian CE sector still at its niche level, characterized by small initiatives largely dependent on national photovoltaics (PV) policy support. It also points out how only larger initiatives, able to operate at national scale, developing multiple projects and differentiating their activities have managed to continue growing at the time of discontinuity of policy support and contraction of the national renewable energy market. Recent EU and national legislative development might support revived development of CE initiatives in Italy.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiara Candelise & Gianluca Ruggieri, 2020. "Status and Evolution of the Community Energy Sector in Italy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-22, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:8:p:1888-:d:344923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/8/1888/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/8/1888/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boon, Frank Pieter & Dieperink, Carel, 2014. "Local civil society based renewable energy organisations in the Netherlands: Exploring the factors that stimulate their emergence and development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 297-307.
    2. Capellán-Pérez, Iñigo & Campos-Celador, Álvaro & Terés-Zubiaga, Jon, 2018. "Renewable Energy Cooperatives as an instrument towards the energy transition in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 215-229.
    3. Seyfang, Gill & Longhurst, Noel, 2013. "Growing green money? Mapping community currencies for sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 65-77.
    4. Antonelli, Marco & Desideri, Umberto, 2014. "The doping effect of Italian feed-in tariffs on the PV market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 583-594.
    5. Viardot, Eric, 2013. "The role of cooperatives in overcoming the barriers to adoption of renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 756-764.
    6. Sagebiel, Julian & Müller, Jakob R. & Rommel, Jens, 2013. "Are Consumers Willing to Pay More for Electricity from Cooperatives? Results from an Online Choice Experiment in Germany," MPRA Paper 52385, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Walker, Gordon & Devine-Wright, Patrick, 2008. "Community renewable energy: What should it mean," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 497-500, February.
    8. van der Schoor, Tineke & Scholtens, Bert, 2015. "Power to the people: Local community initiatives and the transition to sustainable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 666-675.
    9. Yildiz, Özgür, 2014. "Financing renewable energy infrastructures via financial citizen participation – The case of Germany," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 677-685.
    10. Thomas Bauwens & Benjamin Huybrechts & Frédéric Dufays, 2020. "Understanding the Diverse Scaling Strategies of Social Enterprises as Hybrid Organizations," Post-Print hal-02312322, HAL.
    11. Seyfang, Gill & Park, Jung Jin & Smith, Adrian, 2013. "A thousand flowers blooming? An examination of community energy in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 977-989.
    12. August Wierling & Valeria Jana Schwanitz & Jan Pedro Zeiß & Celine Bout & Chiara Candelise & Winston Gilcrease & Jay Sterling Gregg, 2018. "Statistical Evidence on the Role of Energy Cooperatives for the Energy Transition in European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-25, September.
    13. St. Denis, Genevieve & Parker, Paul, 2009. "Community energy planning in Canada: The role of renewable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 2088-2095, October.
    14. Hain, J. J. & Ault, G. W. & Galloway, S. J & Cruden, A. & McDonald, J. R., 2005. "Additional renewable energy growth through small-scale community orientated energy policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1199-1212, June.
    15. Nicoletta Marigo & Chiara Candelise, 2013. "What is behind the recent dramatic reductions in photovoltaic prices? The role of china," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(3), pages 5-41.
    16. Hannon, Matthew J. & Bolton, Ronan, 2015. "UK Local Authority engagement with the Energy Service Company (ESCo) model: Key characteristics, benefits, limitations and considerations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 198-212.
    17. Bauwens, Thomas, 2019. "Analyzing the determinants of the size of investments by community renewable energy members: Findings and policy implications from Flanders," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 841-852.
    18. Benjamin HUYBRECHTS & Sybille MERTENS, 2014. "The Relevance Of The Cooperative Model In The Field Of Renewable Energy," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(2), pages 193-212, June.
    19. Candelise, Chiara & Winskel, Mark & Gross, Robert J.K., 2013. "The dynamics of solar PV costs and prices as a challenge for technology forecasting," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 96-107.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chiara Candelise & Gianluca Ruggieri, 2017. "Community Energy in Italy: Heterogeneous institutional characteristics and citizens engagement," IEFE Working Papers 93, IEFE, Center for Research on Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    2. Mehmet Efe Biresselioglu & Siyami Alp Limoncuoglu & Muhittin Hakan Demir & Johannes Reichl & Katrin Burgstaller & Alessandro Sciullo & Edoardo Ferrero, 2021. "Legal Provisions and Market Conditions for Energy Communities in Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Turkey: A Comparative Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Jay Sterling Gregg & Sophie Nyborg & Meiken Hansen & Valeria Jana Schwanitz & August Wierling & Jan Pedro Zeiss & Sarah Delvaux & Victor Saenz & Lucia Polo-Alvarez & Chiara Candelise & Winston Gilcrea, 2020. "Collective Action and Social Innovation in the Energy Sector: A Mobilization Model Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-24, February.
    4. Moritz Ehrtmann & Lars Holstenkamp & Timon Becker, 2021. "Regional Electricity Models for Community Energy in Germany: The Role of Governance Structures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, February.
    5. Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Baležentis & Artiom Volkov & Mangirdas Morkūnas & Agnė Žičkienė & Justas Streimikis, 2021. "Barriers and Drivers of Renewable Energy Penetration in Rural Areas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-28, October.
    6. F.G. Reis, Inês & Gonçalves, Ivo & A.R. Lopes, Marta & Henggeler Antunes, Carlos, 2021. "Business models for energy communities: A review of key issues and trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. Sebi, Carine & Vernay, Anne-Lorène, 2020. "Community renewable energy in France: The state of development and the way forward," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    8. Fouladvand, Javanshir & Aranguren Rojas, Maria & Hoppe, Thomas & Ghorbani, Amineh, 2022. "Simulating thermal energy community formation: Institutional enablers outplaying technological choice," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    9. Kamila Słupińska & Marek Wieruszewski & Piotr Szczypa & Anna Kożuch & Krzysztof Adamowicz, 2022. "Public Perception of the Use of Woody Biomass for Energy Purposes in the Evaluation of Content and Information Management on the Internet," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-11, September.
    10. Berka, Anna L. & Creamer, Emily, 2018. "Taking stock of the local impacts of community owned renewable energy: A review and research agenda," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3400-3419.
    11. Beate Fischer & Gunnar Gutsche & Heike Wetzel, 2020. "Who wants to get involved? Determinants of citizens’ willingness to participate in German renewable energy cooperatives," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202027, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    12. Dioba, Albina & Giannakopoulou, Amalia & Struthers, David & Stamos, Angelos & Dewitte, Siegfried & Fróes, Isabel, 2024. "Identifying key barriers to joining an energy community using AHP," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    13. Grashof, Katherina, 2019. "Are auctions likely to deter community wind projects? And would this be problematic?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 20-32.
    14. Brummer, Vasco, 2018. "Community energy – benefits and barriers: A comparative literature review of Community Energy in the UK, Germany and the USA, the benefits it provides for society and the barriers it faces," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 187-196.
    15. Holstenkamp, Lars & Kahla, Franziska, 2016. "What are community energy companies trying to accomplish? An empirical investigation of investment motives in the German case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 112-122.
    16. Romero-Castro, Noelia & Piñeiro-Chousa, Juan & Pérez-Pico, Ada, 2021. "Dealing with heterogeneity and complexity in the analysis of the willingness to invest in community renewable energy in rural areas," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    17. Javanshir Fouladvand & Niek Mouter & Amineh Ghorbani & Paulien Herder, 2020. "Formation and Continuation of Thermal Energy Community Systems: An Explorative Agent-Based Model for the Netherlands," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-22, June.
    18. Conradie, Peter D. & De Ruyck, Olivia & Saldien, Jelle & Ponnet, Koen, 2021. "Who wants to join a renewable energy community in Flanders? Applying an extended model of Theory of Planned Behaviour to understand intent to participate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    19. Mignon, Ingrid & Rüdinger, Andreas, 2016. "The impact of systemic factors on the deployment of cooperative projects within renewable electricity production – An international comparison," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 478-488.
    20. Vernay, Anne-Lorène & Sebi, Carine, 2020. "Energy communities and their ecosystems: A comparison of France and the Netherlands," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:8:p:1888-:d:344923. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.