Energy Communities, in Italy there are 168 active ones today

Among Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and collective self-consumption initiatives, there are 168 active realities in Italy to date, about twice as many (+89%) as in 2023, especially in Piedmont, Latium, Sicily and Lombardy, which alone account for 48% of the total with 80 projects. These are the data updated to the first half of this year that emerge from the 2024 edition of the Electricity Market Report prepared by the Energy & Strategy of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, presented today. The impact of the RECs on the system at the moment is still limited, because they are largely realities that have a rather simple corporate form (associations in 50% of cases) and operate with small plants. The median power is growing slightly (from 55 kW in 2023 to 60 kW in 2024), but systems over 200 kW are only 34% of the total, with a significant presence (23.5%) of small systems with a power of less than 30 kW.

"The real challenge for large-scale deployment of CHER is related to its economic sustainability. Analyses conducted within the report, and based on the evaluation of different possible configurations, show how it is strongly linked to the ability to share energy, with values that change radically when exceeding 70% of shared energy. This is therefore a key factor in the planning and design phase of Cer, which however also requires the ability to engage not only the right number, but also the right type of participants,' explains Vittorio Chiesa, Director of Energy & Strategy.

According to the study, 58% of Cer is promoted by a public body that provides space for the installation of the systems and supports the aggregation of members, with the aim of reducing expenses, helping families in situations of economic hardship and financing projects in the area. 21% are specialised entities, supporting interested private individuals, and only 9% are citizens. In 79% of cases, however, the initiative involves an external actor such as small ESCos, utilities or energy companies that support the promoter by investing in the installations.

"By placing a participation constraint on large companies and indicating a share of the incentive to be dedicated to social purposes in the case of SMEs, there has been a downward squeeze on the size of the plants. The result is that in most of the Cer's there is a public body or third sector subjects behind them that have launched initiatives with a social impact. At the moment, this aspect prevails over the one that sees the Cer as an acceleration tool for distributed renewable plants. If the regulatory system remains as it is, the typical size of Cer will be what we are seeing. Of course it will be more widely disseminated. Standard formats for drafting bylaws and contracts are already emerging, an automation that will likely lead to an increase in numbers,' adds Davide Chiaroni, deputy director of Energy & Strategy. The regulatory reference is the Ministry of the Environment's Cacer decree (of 7 December 2023, no. 414) in force from 24 January 2024, which incentivises the installation of 5 GW of capacity, with the Gse managing the measure.

The Politecnico report also cites a survey of 1,000 citizens (21% of whom had already participated in a CER): 80% of the sample expected annual returns of more than EUR 100 per year and only 7% expected to receive less than EUR 50, a figure closer to reality. Compared to the annual expenditure for the electricity bill, in fact, the savings should be around 3-4%.