Co-creating knowledge for renewable energy communities: Application to the Italian context

This essay focuses on a participatory process conducted using a knowledge co-creation and policy recommendation tool, based on the use of a participatory workshop with fifteen stakeholders engaged in setting up the first Italian «renewable energy community» (REC). The workshop was built around a forecasting tool («futures triangle»), to envisage possible development scenarios for the new RECs in different socio-territorial Italian contexts, taking into account the conditions and problems encountered at the time. The methodological aspects of the participatory process were analysed to determine their effectiveness in terms of involving stakeholders, and delivered recommendations to decision-makers at different levels (European, national, local).