Exploring the integration of Renewable Energy Communities in urban planning. The case of Italy

Although Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) represent a valuable tool for urban planning to address the global challenge of carbon neutrality at the local level, planning is listed as an obstacle to the RECs deployment across Europe. With reference to the Italian case, the aim of this work is to investigate the current degree of inclusion and implementation of RECs in urban planning tools, in order to understand to what extent they are considered and possibly promoted in planning practice. The methodological approach followed is to start with the study of the general and sectoral urban planning tools of the municipalities in which there are RECs implemented. Subsequently, the analysis is extended to the general urban planning tools of the provincial capitals. The results obtained show that Italian urban planning is mostly obsolete with reference to the RECs issue. However, some municipalities stand out on the national scene as not silent, promoting RECs in their plans. Nevertheless, these are very recent urban planning tools, for many of which the formation process is still ongoing. Consequently, the inclusion of RECs promotion policies is mostly limited to strategic projections. In this direction, it is of interest to monitor the evolution of these plans to understand if and how the strategic forecasts enunciated will be translated into operational choices and rules, with particular attention to reward measures for the RECs promotion.