Italian region devotes €22 million to ‘energy communities’

The Department of Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development of Lombardy –Italy's wealthiest, most dynamic region – will allocate €22 million ($25.1 million) to support energy communities until the end of 2024.

The regional government hopes to use the funds to build up to 6,000 “energy communities,” for a total installed capacity of up to 1.3GW.

“These resources can be added to those of the National Recovery Plan in support of energy communities which provide funding of €2.2 billion euros for municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants and those of the regional program to support the diffusion of energy communities, which amount to €55.5 million,” it said in a statement.

Energy communities in Italy are awarded special tariffs for all shared power in renewable energy systems not exceeding 200kW in size. Surplus power can be injected into the grid, but with no remuneration, which may encourage the members of such communities to resort to storage. Self-consumed electricity is not subject to bill charges, but it is not granted a direct incentive. The indirect incentive is an avoided electricity cost ranging from €0.13/kWh to €0.20/kWh.

Italy introduced new provisions for solar energy communities in March 2020.