The European Commission said
Wednesday that it has approved a 5.7-billion-euro Italian State
aid scheme to support renewable-energy communities and
self-consumers.
Energy communities are legal entities that empower citizens,
small businesses and local authorities to produce, manage and
consume their own energy.
They can cover various parts of the energy value chain,
including production, distribution, supply, consumption, and
aggregation.
The scheme will be partly funded by the Recovery and Resilience
Facility ('RRF') as part of Italy's post-Covid National Recovery
and Resilience Plan (NRRP), a huge programme that seeks to make
the Italian economy Greener and more modern with projects funded
with the help of almost 200 billion euros in EU grants and
low-interest loans.
The scheme supports the construction of renewable power
generation installations, as well as the expansion of existing
ones.
Beneficiaries are small projects, with capacity of up to 1 MW,
which can access the scheme on a first come, first served basis.
Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto
hailed the decision as a "historic turning point in the
relationship between citizens and energy.
"Now the renewable-energy communities will be able to become a
widespread reality in our country, developing renewable-energy
sources and finally making the national territory a lead player
in future of the nation's energy," he continued.
"Each citizen will be able to contribute to the production of
renewable energy, and enjoy the economic benefits of
self-consumption, thanks to the energy communities".
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