Community energy in Italy through the lens of social innovation

Sustainable urban regeneration, in particular with respect to energy, has become a very important issue for local communities currently as a result of the Green New Deal (GND). Renewable energy in domestic consumption is being used to initiate a transition to cleaner energy and limit environmental damage. Through the lens of social innovation, this paper highlights the continuous challenges faced in the transition to lower carbon energy by investigating the opportunity to change the classical top-down management approach to a bottom-up process. The paper fills a gap in the literature by presenting a regional overview of recent Italian community energy sector developments and outlines a number of national best practices in renewable community energy innovation.