Background: climate emergency and energy transition
Climate change plagues the earth system, the anthropogenic activity of the inordinate use of fossil fuels in industrial supply chains, commercial activities and the energy sector is the main cause of the current climate crisis. The resulting concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has reached the highest level in recent years. As a result, the earth’s temperature rise is increasing, causing environmental damage and climate quality impacts such as melting glaciers, rising sea and ocean levels,[1] biodiversity loss, water acidification, and continuous catastrophic climate events worldwide.
The energy sector plays a key role in the search for a solution to counter the demise of our planet.
Into this tragic historical snapshot comes the European energy crisis caused by the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. With EU sanctions against Russia, the resulting reduced supply of Russian gas and related price inflation show even more how energy independence of European states and the world is needed[2].
It is therefore essential to orient energy planning toward a sustainable energy system, replacing fossil sources with renewable sources[3]. There is, in fact, an intrinsic relationship between the energy market and sustainable development, the latter first defined by the 1987 Brundtland Report as: “development capable of ensuring the satisfaction of the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to realize their needs[4].” That said, in the following pages an attempt will be made to reconstruct the regulatory framework at the international and European level on the sustainable energy transition, which has become a lever for the emergence of energy communities. The discussion continues precisely with an in-depth look at the regulation of renewable energy communities (RECs) and citizen energy communities (CECs) at the European level. It continues, then, with a description of its transposition in Italy, through the presentation of the transition from the transitional regulatory phase to the new regulations introduced with the approval of the Integrated Text on Diffuse Self-consumption. The goal is to provide an overview of the energy community system in order to open a reflection on how this new widespread model of energy production allows to consider energy as a common good, fight energy poverty, create new forms of governance and enhance the figure of the so-called prosumer. Energy communities constitute a new solution resulting from a public-private community partnership in the field of environmental, social and economic innovation, and thus perhaps a real key to addressing climate change and making cities resilient and sustainable[5].
For reading the entire article, please refer to:
A. Aquili, Energy communities: the evolution of the European and national regulatory framework, Law and Society Review, Editoriale Scientifica Srl, 4, 2022, pp. 799-842.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
References
[1] P. Caputo, Importanza della risorsa biomassa nella pianificazione energetica e per lo sviluppo locale. Analisi di alcune esperienze in Nord Italia e possibili scenari evolutivi in Archivio di studi urbani e regionali”, 2021, 131, 186 ss.
[2] N. Braga, Progetti per la transizione energetica: caso di studio relativo ad una centrale di teleriscaldamento associata ad impianto fotovoltaico inserito in Comunità Energetica Rinnovabile, in Università degli Studi di Padova – Dipartimento di Agronomia, Animali, Alimenti, Risorse Naturali e Ambiente e Dipartimento Territorio e Sistemi Agro-Forestali, 2021.
[3] La Corte dei conti italiana definisce fonti rinnovabili: «quelle forme di energia generate da fonti, che per la loro caratteristica intrinseca, si generano o non sono esauribili, ed il cui utilizzo non pregiudica le risorse per le generazione future (…) contrapponendosi a quelle che necessitano di lunghi periodi di formazioni, essendo presenti in riserve esauribili nella scala dei tempi umani». Cfr. Relazione della Corte dei conti, Sezione di controllo per gli affari comunitari ed internazionali, delibera 20 gennaio 2012, n. 1 su «Energie rinnovabili, risparmio ed efficienza energetica nell’ambito della politica di coesione socio-economica dell’Unione europea». M. Romeo, Produzione di agroenergie, autoconsumo collettivo e comunità energetiche, in Diritto e giurisprudenza agraria, alimentare e dell’ambiente, 2021, 4.
Sono considerate energie da fonti rinnovabili: «l’energia eolica, solare (eliotermica e fotovoltaico) e geotermica, da calore ambientale, mareomotrice, del moto ondoso e altre forme di energia marina, energia idroelettrica, energia della biomassa, dei gas di discarica, dei gas residuati dai processi di depurazione e biogas». Cfr. Art. 31 punto 1) direttiva (UE) 2019/944 del Parlamento europeo e del Consiglio del 5 giugno 2019 relativa a norme comuni per il mercato interno dell’energia elettrica e che modifica la direttiva 2012/27/UE.
[4] F. Vetrò, Sviluppo sostenibile, transizione energetica e neutralità climatica. Profili di governance: efficienza energetica ed energie rinnovabili nel “nuovo ordinamento” dell’energia, in Riv. ital. dir. pubbl. com., 1, 2022, 56 ss.
[5] S.R. Foster, C. Iaione, Co-cities Innovative Transitions toward just and self-sustaining Communities, MIT Press, 2022.