Energy Communities: over 450 requests to the Gse in seven months

Everyone agrees on one point: renewable energy communities can bring consumers closer to the green transition by putting them at the centre of a strategic game. It was no coincidence that the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, yesterday opened the proceedings of the Fourth National Conference of RECs, organised in Rome by the Italian Forum of Energy Communities (the Ifec founded by Wec Italia and the Energy Center of the Turin Polytechnic) and organised with the support of Edison, EnGreen, Solarelit powered by Greenvolt, Confcooperative, Datanetwork, fabbricadigitale, Legacoop, Maps Group, and with the patronage of Mase, reiterated, on the one hand, that the Cer are 'a cultural fact' to make families aware of consumption and, on the other, promised 'simplified mechanisms' to facilitate their diffusion.

In short, the CERs are a facilitator for achieving green objectives and are, in the words of Arera president Stefano Besseghini, 'one of the most effective probes' for a concrete reading of crucial aspects of the decarbonisation of electricity consumption. All the more so now that, after the initial running-in linked to the experimental phase, Cer is beginning to spread, as documented by the punctual survey by the president of the Gse, Paolo Arrigoni: "In little more than 7 months, more than 450 new requests for access to the service for widespread self-consumption forwarded to the Gse (51% of which have already been admitted) and more than 750 requests for access to the Pnrr contribution, dedicated to the construction of new plants in municipalities with less than 5 thousand inhabitants, for about 65 MW (with 46.4% of the requests already accepted)".

The tool is therefore beginning to take hold, while abroad, as Franco Cotana, Rse's CEO, said, 'it is now widespread with Germany being the pioneer'. In Italy, on the other hand, there is still a long way to go, but attention on the subject is there, as shown by a survey conducted by Ipsos Italia and illustrated by president Nando Pagnoncelli, according to which 57% of those interviewed are interested in starting a CER not only to cut their bills but also to accelerate the energy transition.

The strong link between the evolution of CERs and green targets is therefore clear, as Michele Vitiello, secretary general of Wec Itala, and Romano Borchiellini, coordinator of the Energy Centre PoliTO, emphasised, but energy communities are also, as Giulia Monteleone, director of Enea's Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources department, pointed out, "a synthesis element" of initiatives aimed at decarbonisation. In order to push Cer, however, other knots need to be untangled, starting with the further simplification of procedures, as emerged from the thematic panels of the conference, during which the 2024 'Cer of the Ifec Year' was then proclaimed, an award assigned to Sun-Fai, a cooperative community founded in Dalmine (Bergamo), which also won the Calì Prize, the contribution established in memory of professor emeritus of the Turin Polytechnic Michele Calì, who passed away in 2021.