Residential Renewable Energy Community: a Techno-Economic Analysis of the Italian Approach

Increased installation and use of renewable energy sources will contribute to achieving Europe's energy and climate targets. In addition, users of small-scale systems will play a pivotal role in the energy transition through the establishment of Renewable Energy Communities. As part of the Italian REC implementation approach, this paper provides a technical-economic analysis demonstrating the effectiveness, in conjunction with the appropriate business model, of promoting both residential PV/battery installations and reductions in electricity bills. The REC model assumes fixed prosumers, an increasing number of consumers, and different PV/battery configurations and management strategies. The simulation results demonstrate an increase in energy performance using a centralized battery management strategy and an increasing number of consumers. Furthermore, a business model to evaluate the economic benefits of being part of REC has been proposed by showing good incomes when the prosumers equal the consumers.