The birth of renewable energy communities finds an agreement between Enea and Confcooperative on its way. The organization of social enterprises and the research body have signed a protocol to push on the institutions and facilitate the creation of new energy aggregations. Italy is lagging behind on these forms of solidarity envisaged in the European decarbonization project. The agreement comes a few days before the end of the public consultation launched by the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. The deadline, in fact, is set for next December 12, the date by which associations, organizations and citizens can send the relevant proposals to the Ministry.
The Ministry's consultation on energy communities expires on December 12
Cooperatives and Enea are ready to give the necessary support to organizations and municipalities to make up for the accumulated delays. In the last two years, only a few dozen communities have been born in Italy. Instead, we need to encourage the diffusion of new technologies, of a distributed and collaborative model of energy production, which sees people as protagonists. For this and more” in energy communities we see not only the opportunity for cooperative promotion- he says Maurice Gardini president of Confcooperative. The reference to the energy crisis following the Russian aggression against Ukraine is obvious for the signatories of the agreement. In terms of energy, the war affected a country 80% dependent on gas and oil imports and that the energy transition continues between ups and downs. The communities have their value in the solidarity between citizens who make the choice to use renewable energies upstream. On the other hand, it is a choice that meets the favor of the energy companies that are gearing up to manage them in the best possible way.
The government's implementing measures are awaited.
For Enea, the agreement is strategic. Confcooperative is a capillary organization that has cooperation between subjects in its name. “We aim to perfect and enhance widespread self-consumption tools and services and the smart energy community iin order to mitigate energy poverty and accelerate the energy and ecological transition through a greater diffusion of renewable sources and the active participation of citizens in the energy market", comments the President of ENEA Gilberto Dialuce. From the government however, the implementing decrees are awaited to give full substance to an advanced social model based on local energy exchange. In this way the dependence - and therefore the demand - of energy from the national electricity system is lowered. The next measures should have a five-year validity with the total installation of 5 Gigawatts. Where communities have been created, there has been a shift from the electricity production of power plants to many small producers spread across the Municipalities. It's not little.
