Fostering sustainable economic development and mitigating energy poverty through renewable energy communities

Background: Energy poverty remains an urgent social and economic challenge, exacerbated by rising energy costs, climate change, and inequalities in access to renewable technologies. Renewable energy communities (RECs) offer a promising approach that combines local energy production, democratic participation, and shared benefits, with the potential to reduce costs and improve energy access for vulnerable households. However, their effectiveness depends on economic viability, equitable distribution of benefits, regulatory support, and active community involvement. This study is relevant in that it assesses the viability, critical success factors, and benefit-sharing mechanisms of a photovoltaic REC, providing insights into how such models can foster sustainable, inclusive, and socially cohesive energy transitions. Results: The analysis assesses the profitability of an 80 kW photovoltaic system for a REC located in Northern Italy. The project’s profitability ranges from 2556 to 5791 €/kW for self-consumption levels of 30% to 70%. Even without incentives, the investment remains economically sustainable, with profits ranging from 1693 to 3777 €/kW. Profitability is strongly influenced by self-consumption, but the incentive also makes the project much more attractive to prosumers. Sensitivity, scenario, and risk analyses confirm the project’s robustness with respect to other variables, including energy purchase and sale prices, investment costs, and the opportunity cost of capital. A new methodology for distributing benefits across stakeholder categories (producers, consumers, households in energy poverty, territorial redevelopment, and the State) is proposed, also including ESCOs as facilitators and catalysts for RECs. Conclusions: RECs can be a tool for energy transition, capable of generating economic and social benefits even without government incentives in a mature photovoltaic market. However, incentives significantly enhance the project’s economic viability and promote broader participation in the creation of these communities. From a policy perspective, this suggests a shift from direct subsidies to creating conditions conducive to community development, through programs that protect vulnerable families and aim to balance the needs of all stakeholders. From a managerial point of view, profitability depends above all on optimising self-consumption, while the equitable distribution of benefits among stakeholders strengthens legitimacy, fairness, and social cohesion.