COMUNITÀ ENERGETICHE RINNOVABILI: PROPOSTA PER UNA CLASSIFICAZIONE DEI BENEFICI MULTIPLI ED ESEMPI DI APPROCCI VALUTATIVI

Abstract

Since renewable energy community projects are very different in their organizational structure, motivations, goals, they are also different in their societal impacts. In this paper, a variety of possible benefits and negative side effects is summarized, resulting in the elaboration of the taxonomy of impacts and its indicators.  Our innovative taxonomy describes multiple impacts within such dimensions as time, scale, type, group, beneficiary/affected stakeholder. The assessment technique is offered to each impact. The second part of the research offers an example of the simple assessment of two different Italian renewable energy communities, organized in the form of cooperatives albeit having a very different business model and as an implication different impact. A list of benefits and negative side effects are thus identified. This list open ups the discussion on how to use the taxonomy in impact evaluations of renewable energy community projects.