Techno-economic assessment and benefit allocation in solidarity-based renewable energy communities

The energy transition is a crucial aspect nowadays; the development toward sustainable and decentralized energy systems also passes through renewable energy communities. This thesis explores the development and implementation of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), emphasizing their environmental, economic, and social impact. The study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the legal and regulatory frameworks, particularly in the Italian context, and the role of energy democracy in fostering local participation in renewable energy projects. Focusing on the case study of the "Energie di Comunità ETS" Foundation, a recently born initiative that has the aim of creating new configurations of renewable and solidarity-based energy communities on the initiative of the Archdiocese of Turin. This thesis has a focus on the methodology of the evaluation process to add new configurations to the foundation, starting from the data collection, which are then processed to obtain from the monthly consumption divided by time bands the energy profiles for every hour of the year. These profiles overlapped on the production profiles generated in the PV*SOL program are used to evaluate the amount of electricity produced inside the configuration is consumed in the same hour; this quantity is called energy shared. Using that and other quantities calculated in the elaboration phases, it is possible to calculate the reduction of CO2 emissions related to the energy consumption, the self-consumption and self-sufficiency factors, and the amount of incentives related to the energy shared. With a focus on the possible allocation of the incentives related to the configuration, that has to follow the criteria dictated by the regulation of the foundation, for example, a part of the income has to be involved in a social project in the territory of the configuration. Also reporting the case studies on which this evaluation was carried out, 4 configurations situated in the metropolitan area of Turin, 2 with only one photovoltaic plant financed by the religious participant of the configuration, with 20 KW of power installed and respectively 29 MWh/year and 22 MWh/year, 1 configuration located in a district of Turin with 2 photovoltaic plants financed by religious participants with a total power installed of 32 KW and 39 MWh/year, and the last one is a more complex configuration with multiple plants financed by religious participants and private investors with total capacity of 181 KW installed and 206 MWh/year, with the possibility to access PNRR funds because it is a municipality of less than 5000 inhabitants. From the results of this case studies is possible to evaluate that the configuration with less plants have higher self-consumption so add other members would be not so effective as for the Villarbasse configuration that would benefit more of new consumption members. It is also true that Villarbasse's configuration, having more plants and access to higher incentives, has a higher reduction of CO2 emissions compared to the other configuration. At the end, there is a discussion of possible allocation methods that do not use fixed criteria as those used in the case studies but dynamic allocation methods.