CER Fiemme s.c.

Val di Fiemme, Italy

CER Fiemme operates in Val di Fiemme, an Alpine valley where woods and mountains cover most of the territory and where villages, businesses and tourist accommodation are concentrated on the valley floor. In a setting like this, managing natural and energy resources autonomously is nothing new: it is a necessity the valley has lived with for centuries. The Renewable Energy Community is its contemporary version.
CER Fiemme is already established in cooperative form, has its first members and has started the recognition procedure for its first substation (Cavalese) with the national Energy Services Operator (GSE).
The issue Agricom's work focuses on is broadening the membership base. The energy community is targeting farms and tourist accommodation in particular, as they have usable roofs and generation and consumption profiles that differ from one another. What is needed, therefore, is a mapping of existing installations that could join and the identification of the parties best suited to host new ones.

Every pilot answers the same questions. Read how it joined AGRICOM, what support it receives and what it aims to achieve.

pilot PROFILE

How did you find each other / what attracted them to Agricom?

CER Fiemme is a member of the Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione, which promotes Agricom: the contact therefore came about within an already well-established relationship. The cooperative expressed interest right from the start, because its situation matched exactly what the project promised to address, offering practical support capable, hopefully, of speeding up the energy community's real start-up through technical and communication assistance.

Why did you choose them among other applicants?

CER Fiemme was chosen because it sits exactly at the point where Agricom's support can make the difference: it already has a membership base and legal recognition, but it is not yet operational. There is therefore no need to build from scratch, nor to consolidate something that already works: what is needed is to turn an existing structure into an active player in the local area. It is a step many Italian energy communities have to face.

Which experience with renewable energy or energy communities do they have?

CER Fiemme is already an Energy Community established in cooperative form: it has a statute its first members with installations, and it has started the recognition procedure with the national Energy Services Operator (GSE), but it is not yet operational. This situation is more common than one might think: setting up the energy community is the quick part of the process, while becoming operational requires longer technical and administrative timescales.

What problems will you help them solve - technical planning, business planning, outreach and matchmaking etc.? How?

For CER Fiemme the work covers two parallel fronts. The first is broadening the membership base: involving different sectors of local business (livestock farmers and dairies, farm holidays, restaurants and local producers in particular), as well as private citizens, because an energy community with few members shares little energy. The second is technical: mapping the area to identify existing installations that meet the requirements to join, and pinpointing the most strategic and promising parties on which to install new ones, supporting them through the process with a technical feasibility study and system sizing.

What do you expect to achieve for the pilot by the end of the project? Technically, financially, policy-wise, with regards to community building and sustainability for the region etc.

By the end of the project, CER Fiemme is expected to be sharing energy on its first substation and running the community in all its obligations, legal-administrative as well as technical. It should also expand into neighbouring areas, involving a wider community and becoming a genuine driver of local economic and social development.

What risks do you see and how will you mitigate them?

One specific risk concerns the possible incompatibility between public subsidies for farmers and access to the energy-community incentive. More generally, community initiatives share a common risk: failing to communicate their advantages and benefits effectively, and failing to build the trust needed to attract new members.

How does the local policy influence pilots' possibilities? Is there anything they would like to realize but it is (currently) impossible?

From a policy standpoint, the single most helpful measure would be to facilitate the allocation to renewable energy communities of publicly owned surfaces suitable for hosting generation plants — the roofs of schools, sports facilities, municipal buildings and other public assets — through streamlined and transparent procedures for granting their use. A second priority is for public institutions to promote renewable energy communities more actively, not merely as a technical instrument for generating electricity but as a tool for local development and for strengthening community participation, with information and awareness-raising initiatives aimed at citizens and businesses alike. Lastly, it would be valuable to entrust local authorities and territorial bodies with the possibility of directly managing part of the energy resources available in their area: keeping decisions, and the resulting benefits, as close as possible to the communities that host the installations.