In Bologna the largest energy community in Italy: from the shopping center to the parish

We are united, without leaders or committees. We are the community of the Pillar. For 40 years we have been used to working on common goals and now we will also become an energy community “. Claudia Boattini has lived in the Pilastro-Roveri district in Bologna since the 1970s. She was the regional manager of CNA Emilia Romagna for the environment and energy, now she is retired. Since 2019 with the neighbors, together with the operators of the environmental associations and the Municipality, you have involved the over 5 thousand people living in the neighborhood on the largest shared project for the production, consumption and exchange of electricity in Italy. The GECO (Green Energy COmmunity) Project, born thanks to the involvement of CAAB – the Agro-Food Center which is also part of FICO, the large food park – is the owner of over 120 thousand square meters of solar panels, which had proposed to sell part energy to the families of the Pillar. Everything was ready, with the ESS Modena (Agency for Energy and Sustainable Development) acting as coordinator, the economic support of Climate-KIC, the technological support of the researchers of the University of Bologna and Enea.

GECO was expected to become operational in July 2022, leading the way for other energy communities in the region. A vanguard of the already approved regional energy plan. And what happened then? “It happened that the legislation changed and, overnight, the control unit to which the families of the Pillar and Roveri should have been connected was no longer the right one to receive energy from the CAAB”, explains Claudia Boattini.

But the pillars did not stop “because here we are used to fighting for our rights. So, since we can no longer create an energy community with the Agro-Food Center, we proposed it to those who share the primary control unit with us. period, we involved the parish, the shopping center and the bank. They all said yes. To begin with, we are only waiting for the implementing decrees of the new law. After explaining both the economic and social benefits to the citizens of the Pillar, no one intends to return backwards”.

A story of redemption

Periphery to the north-east of Bologna, the Pilastro (named after a stone with a Madonna) has long been no longer a symbol of marginalization. Here the work done over the years by citizens and associations, between buildings called Torre 1,2,3 and the “Svirgolone”, the hemicycle of condominiums where Acer’s houses are mixed with those owned, has changed the face of this community. Year after year, the Circolo La Fattoria has sprung up, which between urban gardens and tango courses works to overcome the stereotype of “degraded suburbs”; then the Yellow House a space self-managed by the inhabitants and a short time ago the documentation center for disability was born. There is even a blog, “Pilastro Bologna”, the site of those who live in this district. We are beyond the ring road and now it is full of greenery and the urban and social fabric is far from degraded. Here the words sustainability, awareness and active citizenship are part of the conversations between neighbors that meet on the stairs every day.

The condominium solar

It is in this context that the process of involving the pillars on the idea of ​​establishing an energy community in the north-east area of ​​Bologna begins in 2019. The proposal to transform this part of the city in an innovative and sustainable way is by Duccio Caccioni, employee of the CAAB-FICO. And it is no coincidence that it is him, since he is also a resident of the Pillar and one of the animators of the neighborhood. Duccio is one who has followed the events of those who live in the Towers and knows what they need.

“The idea was simple. I thought: why don’t we optimize the production of energy that comes from the” prairie “of photovoltaic panels that the Agro-Food Center has on the roof, including that of FICO? energy we have it from 3 in the morning until noon, time of loading and unloading of goods, because the surplus of energy accumulated during the day cannot be sold to the families who are in the same area as us? The Pillar seemed to be our natural partner, given the proximity. Thanks to the combination of renewable sources, storage, distributed generation and self-consumption, the citizens of the neighborhood and other small businesses would have benefited from reduced energy rates. A true experience of zero-kilometer energy. Or almost “, says Duccio who for months explained to neighbors how the electricity produced by a photovoltaic system can be consumed not only by those who are entitled to it ular, but from an aggregation of users that the panels do not have them.

So in a short time, as only in Emilia they know how to do when it comes to consortia and cooperation, from the proposal of Duccio Caccioni we quickly moved on to the project shared with the university. The Municipality immediately thought of making an experiment for the whole of Bologna. The focus is on an energy community, which is given the name GECO and even the legal profile is chosen: it will be a cooperative controlled by citizens of the Pillar, involved both in the generation of distributed energy and in the distribution of incentives. Claudia Carani she is responsible for the coordination of European and innovation projects for AESS. She followed the GECO project from the beginning and is still its coordinator: “The goal, in addition to that of energy saving, was to create a model of smart city to be replicated by involving a territory, with citizens in the search for local solutions. to face the challenges imposed by climate change “.

But when everything was ready and at the Pillar they were ready to sign to found the largest energy community in Italy, both European and national legislation changed and they all found themselves in a sort of limbo. In fact, now to give life to an energy community (where the exchange of energy can take place even only virtually) it is necessary to be attached to the same primary cabin. The technical limit is given by the cabin: those who exchange energy from renewable sources receive incentives only if they are under the same cabin. This is not the case with CAAB-FICO-Pilastro. So we start over, but the project is not put aside, rather relaunched.

Claudia Carani further explains: “We will make two energy communities: one on the Agro-Food Center that will give energy to other companies that weigh on their primary cabin, another to the Pillar together with the parish, the shopping center and a bank. Now we are awaiting the implementing decrees of law 199 of 2021 which transposes the European directive. They are expected to arrive by the end of the year. Here in Bologna we are ready to leave “.

Renewed energy

Claudia Boattini, almost every day continues to write on the Pilastro blog, talks about the progress of the GECO project. “For us this is an opportunity not to be missed. We were one step away, but luckily we have recovered sponsors and partners. Over the years, we have become strong, we have created a high sense of community, we know that to achieve a goal that will have benefits for all we must be united. That of the energy community is just another challenge. And then it is a source of pride: bringing the energy produced by the sun to our neighborhood of the Towers represents the future for the new generations. Because, it is true that clean energies are renewable ones, but above all they are human ones “.

The reportage by Mattia Zoppellaro is part of a photographic project by Contrasto, in collaboration with Green & Blue, to tell about climate change in Italy. The photos will be on display at the MAXXI in Rome from 23 November.