Energy Communities: The Opportunity for an Energy Transition Characterized by a Return to the Territory

The creation of energy communities represents an opportunity to overcome the traditional social acceptance paradigm and sector approach in the energy field. The case study of an energy community in the making in the Alpine region enables experimentation with a territorial and heritage approach to the energy transition. This research project tries to connect together territorial heritage, renewable energy sources, and the local community dimension, identified as a strategic field of action also by European directives on energy. The method of analyzing local heritage energy resources and their contribution to energy mix composition, as well as conducting interviews to identify potential stakeholders to involve in setting up the energy community, reveals the presence of untapped potential, both from energy and social capital perspectives. The enhancement of local energy potential, respecting the concept of limitation in resource use and consistent with the protection of territorial, environmental, and landscape heritage, shows the return to the territory in energy production as a sustainable energy transition perspective.