ABSTRACT
Energy communities (ECs) are here defined and analyzed in detail according to the European regulatory and policy framework. ECs are an important strategy to be used on a large scale to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on a global level. Their realization and worldwide deployment could be seen as the outcome of the 21st-century energy transition. This is only possible if such a transition is properly facilitated by a permeable market and an effective technical legislation, which will be analyzed in this chapter. In this scenario, also citizens would play the role of main actors in the production-distribution process, thus affirming their autonomy with respect to the current centralized plants, powered by fossil fuels. In order to understand the real feasibility and the current state of progress of energy communities in Europe, it is fundamental to refer to the regulatory framework of the European Union, which is the first and undisputed forerunner for the energy transition process we have discussed so far. Therefore, based on these premises, we will start reviewing the “Clean Energy for all Europeans Package” up to the very recent and operative technical norms approved in the EU in the last two to five years for ECs implementation.
