Renewable and citizen energy communities: Similarities, differences and open issues

The paper discusses similarities and differences between the concepts of Renewable and Citizen Energy Communities introduced, respectively, by the 2018/2001 "RED II" directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and by the 2019/944 "IEM" directive on common rules for the internal market for electricity, as well as some open issues to be tackled when transposing such directives into national laws, in order to achieve an efficient and effective implementation of such new collective energy production and consumption schemes. The paper also presents the framework introduced in Italy by the preliminary transposition of the "RED II" Directive (Decree Law 162/2019 and subsequent provisions) and by the recent legislative decrees for the complete transposition.