Consumer (Co-)Ownership in Renewables in Italy

Abstract

Due to favourable government incentives, and spatial and financial accessibility, the prevalent technology for prosumership has been solar PV. However, it should be noted that in Italy a legal framework addressing prosumership is still absent, and there is there no official definition of prosumership. Although no national regulation concerning prosumer rights has been enacted yet, many proposals have been debated or are awaiting discussion in Parliament. However, consumer (co-)ownership received explicit recognition of its crucial role in the 2018 recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) as part of the Clean Energy Package. Furthermore, in April 2018 the Horizon 2020 project SCORE was launched with the aim to facilitate consumers to become (co-)owners of RE in three European pilot regions, one of them being the Susa Valley, employing a Consumer Stock Ownership Plan. RE consumer (co-)ownership can be set up in the form of a cooperative; these started to emerge from the beginning of the twentieth century. If these cooperatives are non-profit only 30 to 55 per cent of their revenues are taxed. Municipalization of energy services is gaining importance, with municipal utilities playing an important role in attracting investment in RE infrastructure and often entering into public—private partnerships. Public utilities in the energy sector usually have the legal form of joint stock companies, with a majority of public ownership and the remaining shares in the hands of various shareholders such as SMEs, citizens as individual investors, associations, and NGOs.