Local Energy Community MIRACER

By project ZEROCO2

Published on 28 September 2022

Italy

Molise

Mirabello (CB)

About this good practice

In the framework of the project LEC, the Municipality of Mirabello created the 1st Local Energy Community in Molise “MIRACER”.Based on the active role and real needs of the citizens/consumers, the Municipality of Mirabello, along with the LAG Molise Verso il 2000, 9 citizens and 2 local firms, the coffee roasting firm “CIEMME S.R.L” and the dairy firm “Latteria del Molise” signed the Constitutive Act and the Statute of the LEC “MIRACER”. From a technical point of view, all the buildings of the MIRACER’s members are located within the same primary substation (HV/MV) of Mirabello and, about the production capacity, the maximum power for single production facilities is 1 MWp. The energy comes from the 2 PV system (80+30 MWp) owned by the 2 local firms.
The main stakeholders and beneficiaries for this practice are the landlords, citizens/consumers of the Municipality of Mirabello, the Electricity Network Manager.
RECs are a way to organize collective energy actions and to provide benefits to its members and local communities.

Resources needed

The cost for RECs are rather high (approximately 1.100 Euro/kW), but could be supported with funds from the Italian State and EU.
The human resources to set up and run this practice are a technical staff: an energy expert, a communication expert and a lawyer.

Evidence of success

The aim of the REC is to generate socio-economic and environmental benefits for the local community. In addition, there are incentives for energy shared by members during the same hour of production and tax deductions for the construction of energy assets. Moreover will make producers / consumers more independent

Potential for learning or transfer

This practice can be considered as an interesting learning for the other regions because it provides a model that contributes to a "sustainable municipality" based on the active role and needs of citizens/consumers.
An energy community is an association made up of local public bodies, companies, commercial activities or private citizens, who adopt to equip themselves with infrastructures for the production of energy from any renewable source and self-consumption through a model based on sharing. It is therefore a collaborative form of energy, centered on a local exchange system to promote joint management, sustainable development and reduce energy dependence on the national electricity system.