The Contribution of Energy Communities to the Upscaling of Photovoltaics in Germany and Italy

August Wierling, Jan Pedro Zeiss, Veronica Lupi, Chiara Candelise, Alessandro Sciullo and Valeria Jana Schwanitz
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August Wierling: Department of Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Røyrgata 6, 6856 Sogndal, Norway
Jan Pedro Zeiss: Department of Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Røyrgata 6, 6856 Sogndal, Norway
Veronica Lupi: GREEN Research Centre, Bocconi University, Via Röntgen 1, 20136 Milan, Italy
Chiara Candelise: GREEN Research Centre, Bocconi University, Via Röntgen 1, 20136 Milan, Italy
Alessandro Sciullo: Department of Culture, Politics, and Society, University of Turin, Via Verdi 8, 10124 Turin, Italy
Valeria Jana Schwanitz: Department of Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Røyrgata 6, 6856 Sogndal, Norway

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Energy communities (EC) are among the new actors in the energy market, playing an important role in the uptake of photovoltaics (PV) in European markets. This paper estimates their aggregate contribution to the low-carbon energy transition in terms of installed capacities for PV and evaluates their economic performance comparing with market prices. We compiled a database of PV facilities with 3672 entries for Germany and 64 entries for Italy. Our statistical analysis does not support an economic under-performance of EC. The aggregate contribution of EC currently amounts to 600–838 MWp installed capacity in Germany and 10.6 MWp installed capacity in Italy, which makes 1.2–1.7% and 0.07% of all PV installations in Germany and Italy, respectively.

Keywords: energy cooperatives; community energy; energy transition; energy market; renewable energy; market performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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