In Pozza di Fassa the community wanted by robotics students

It all started with the afternoon robotics course at the Ladin school in Pozza di Fassa (Trento), a small hamlet in the valley overlooked by peaks such as Cima Dodici and the Torri del Vajolet. Thomas Zulian, the maths and physics teacher overseeing the initiative, traces the genesis of what has now become the first energy community in the Val di Fassa: "Every year with the robotics group we take part in the First Lego League, an international competition that involves building a robot to take part in the competitions and at the same time drawing up a scientific project, identifying a problem and proposing a solution, each year on a different theme. For the 2023 edition, it was energy. So we reasoned on the critical issues related to energy: transport, dispersion, production from non-renewable sources with risks to the environment. And we looked for something that could be inherent to the region. As a solution we therefore thought of presenting a Cer, a renewable electric community, which we had started to hear about at that very time'.

The rest is on the record: Cesla (Comunità Energetica Scuola Ladina Asilo) was born, together with the kindergarten next to the high school, and with some local partners: the Pozza di Fassa Electric Consortium (Cep), Fpb Cassa di Fassa Primiero Belluno, and FassaCoop, which covered all the activation costs: "With the three cooperatives and the school, we started with the project, based on the idea of installing solar panels on the roof of the Pozza kindergarten to power the school itself, which has recently been renovated, and the two buildings next door that house the three high schools, scientific, artistic and linguistic, the latter two in a new structure".

In the spring of 2023, awareness-raising activities will be carried out in the area, starting in schools, involving even the youngest children with games and skits. The aim: to create awareness about the problems of energy production and the solution represented by Cer. "We set up a non-profit association through an accountant, which has been operational for a few days. There are seven founding members: the first are the three students of the original robotics group, the only three of age. The others will be able to join later when they reach the age of majority,' says Zulian: 'Then there's me as the high school representative with our school headmaster, and then a parent and the president of the kindergarten. The bureaucratic structure is ready. And we will soon register on the Gse portal to have the incentive recognised".

The technical structure is also ready: the Pozza di Fassa Electricity Consortium has made available the 20 kW photovoltaic system on the roof of the kindergarten: 'The panels have been in operation since last summer, it seems that since they are already active they cannot be considered for Cer, which was formally established later. We are now carrying out checks to understand. We may have to use other panels, installed on a church a few kilometres from the schools, in the area of the same primary cabin. It is an installation that has always been made available to Cep and will be activated soon,' explains Zulian.

The incentive that will be collected by this Cer will be totally allocated to high schools and kindergartens for projects and stationery costs. "The capacity of the system at the moment covers the consumption of the school buildings during the day. For the future we are considering including some private consumers, perhaps for the weekend, so that the community can use as much energy as possible: the closer we get to 100 per cent self-consumption, the higher the incentive. And then if we see that it works well, we could enlarge it by connecting more panels".