Asset
Bassa Vallagarina | Italy 🇮🇹
Asset unites the community of the Bassa Vallagarina area. The initiative received substantial support from the local institutions and cooperatives. A few years ago, PV systems were installed on the roofs of local consumer cooperatives – Asset is working on turning ,ere self-consumption of the generated energy into sharing. The community is still in its early stages – with AGRICOM, it wants to persuade the locals to join, map existing resources and installations and define how energy sharing can operate in practice.
Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione (FTC) helps Italian AGRICOM pilots reach their energy community goals. Founded in 1895, it contributes to the social and economic resilience of communities and territories through cooperative entrepreneurship.
➔ How did the pilot join AGRICOM?
Asset learned about AGRICOM thanks to FTC’s opportunities promotion. Asset is in the beginning of its energy community journey so it aims to start strong by implementing best practices of FTC.
➔ What made the pilot stand out?
Asset is a grassroots initiative that received support from the local institutional and cooperative players – the local interest in the creation of an energy community is evident. AGRICOM will help Asset shape its organization and set the pace from the very first decisions.
➔ What does the pilot already have in place?
Asset itself doesn’t have experience with energy sharing yet, however, its partners in the region offer their expertise – in the past, with the involvement of the local bank Cassa Rurale, photovoltaic systems were installed on the roofs of local consumer cooperatives.
➔ How will AGRICOM help?
Outreach and matchmaking: The energy community does not exist yet – AGRICOM will help bring interested actors together.
Technical planning: AGRICOM will support a mapping of existing resources and interested parties and create a plan on how energy can be shared among them.
Business planning: A business plan will confirm that the initiative is economically sustainable.
➔ Future vision: what will you achieve together?
By the end of the project, Asset aims to have its substation registered and the membership base large enough to generate a meaningful amount of renewable energy to share among the members.
➔ What should the pilot keep in mind?
Involving the local population and building trust is crucial – and not always easy. On top of that, Italy has been offering large subsidies for energy projects on individual farms. Asset now has a challenging task of making its value proposition of community energy more attractive than private projects.