The sweet revolution of self-consumption – the Republic

The decarbonisation objectives require a rapid transition from fossil to renewable sources and this transformation cannot be separated from a radical change in the model capable of addressing not only energy issues, but also economic and social issues. An important tool for a smooth transition is the renewable energy communities CER. They are communities intended as a gift (cum-munus), of course, but also as a moral obligation to achieve a shared goal, what the UN 2030 Agenda defined clean energy for all.

This involves a renewed behavior of the individual, no longer simply and passively a consumer but also an active producer, which ultimately is what allows the recovery of an individual responsibility achieved in social terms, the true cornerstone of the new energy model. CERs are tools of active citizenship necessary to ensure the centrality of the prosumer and the importance of distributed generation of energy and self-consumption, with an enhancement of the territory in which they arise and its resources (wind, sun, biomass, etc. ), imposing a geographical coincidence between production and consumption which is further energy saving.

Thanks to economic incentives, the CERs can represent a significant support for families in energy poverty and provide an important function in terms of local consensus for the authorization and construction of the plants.

Recent European directives also underline these aspects, defining the CERs as a legal entity founded on voluntary and open participation and with the main purpose of offering its members and the territory in which they operate environmental, economic and social benefits without generating financial profits. The benefits will be of another nature and will go in the direction of renouncing the absolute autonomy of the markets and financial speculation by acting above all on the structural causes of inequity.

It is a decisive action towards what we have called the democratization of energy, with a first step towards energy as a common good. Within 5 years, 40 thousand CERs are expected, with the involvement of more than a million families and with a projection of 5-6 GW installed by 2030, more or less a tenth of the capacity required by Europe for climate objectives.

* (The author is Vice Rector for Sustainability of the Sapienza University of Rome)