The fifth SHREC Stakeholders Meeting was organized by Piemonte Region as a virtual conference on April 27 in cooperation with the STORE4HUC Interreg Central Europe project. The focus was on the update on the stages of advancement of Energy Community initiatives in the Piemonte Region, and the illustration of European examples of Energy Communities implementation. The debate within the four roundtables which were organized pointed out the problems EC are facing and the needs they feel more urgent.
The large participation to the virtual event, about 35 attendees, confirmed the interest of regional stakeholders in EC, which is one of the main topic in the roadmap for the regional energy transition nowadays. They were representatives of policy makers, local administrations, technicians, energy utilities, academia and research institutions.
The pilot projects on energy communities are strategic and Piemonte Region will try to implement them, but they must be part of a broader strategy, not one-off initiatives. What mainly was highlighted during the debate is: the importance of sharing experience and knowledge between EC and to widen the territorial scale of application of energy communities to create economies of scale; it would be necessary to train a new professional figure to manage the energy community in a proactive way; there is a lack of information and communication towards citizens.
Thanks to the call of a regional Bank Foundation, Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, some new EC are also starting to explore the territorial situation, thus showing the increasing interest of local administrations in this topic.
Once more, is highlighted that the Piemonte Region is called to play an active role as coordinator between the national and the regional level and between the developing Energy Communities. This action will be further developed thanks to the SHREC project implementation.
