Scholarly record
Prosumerism and Energy Communities: Expanding Concepts in a Global Perspective
Abstract
This is the second book that sees the light within the ECPE Project. if inside the first volume we focused our attention on the issues concerning barriers and obstacles to the phenomenon of prosumerism and self-production and self- consumption of energy, this book will have as its object of research the various possibilities offered by the energy communities. So the studies will analyze mainly the legal form an energy community could cover inside the national framework, comparing the experiences of different countries both within the European Union, both outside Europe. The comparison between virtuous experiences of countries that can also be very different from each other, both for legal tradition and contingent needs, could transform this book into an important tool to understand the problems which arise with the birth and the develop of energy communities, their link with the local situations and the advantages that they can bring to the territorial areas in which they operate. All this, however, provided that the communities could receive all the correct means (legal, fiscal, judicial) that will enable them to be the protagonists of that long awaited change in the energy paradigm. A change long awaited indeed, but that still seems far away. This time also we wanted to remain faithful to the multidisciplinary approach which had yielded such fruitful results in the first book of the ECPE Project, by collecting the essays and surveys of many researchers that offer different perspectives and methodologies to analyze the energy phenomenon and energy communities in particular. The book is divided into four parts. At the beginning Prof. Lucia Ruggeri enlights how far European policies have come, how far all energy market’s players still have to go in the implementation of sustainable development's values. In the second part are collected essays that analyze the energetic communities and the legal context in which they operate, comparing the Italian experience and those of many other countries, European and not. In the third part are hosted the answers to the questionnaire trying to cover the experiences of those states that do not find their examination in the second part, with an insight to the experiences of the large emerging countries (Cina, India, but also Argentina and United States), where the problem of pollution has become an emergency that can no longer be postponed and therefore the need for decarbonisation and energy transition to clean and renewable sources is more strongly felt. The final part, in continuity with the structure already tested in the first volume, hosts the thoughts of one witness of civil society engaged in the Italian energy transition. As editors of this work we hope you will appreciate this volume as a useful tool for dealing with problems, but also opportunities, that the energy transition continues to offer for the sustainable development of our society. Porf. DSc. Lucia Ruggeri and PhD Federico Pascucci
