How to Measure the Social Impact of Renewable Energy Communities?

This work-in-progress study examines the emergence and development of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) in Europe, focusing particularly on the recent regulatory framework established in Italy. Supported by significant incentive policies, RECs aim to accelerate the sustainable transition of inner-country-localised ecosystems, building on a community-centric approach to redesigning energy production and consumption. Although many studies contribute to such scientific literature on renewable energy (especially from a technical perspective), very little research examines the characteristics and implications of RECs (especially considering the relevance of the social objective relative to the phenomenon). Moreover, while the necessity for a social impact evaluation model of RECs is increasingly emerging from the practical realm, little is known from an integrated perspective of organisational, managerial, and information systems (IS) aspects. Following in the footsteps of the IS tradition, this study seeks to contribute to such a discourse by considering technology as a component of the solution for addressing this need. We adopt a Design Science Research (DSR) approach for designing and developing an IT artefact crafted on RECs. At the same time, this artefact intends to enhance operational efficiency and establish a robust social impact evaluation system. The out-comes of this research are twofold: (1) to provide a comprehensive overview of the current landscape and challenges RECs face, and (2) to propose a novel IT-based solution for evaluating and maximising the social impact of RECs. This paper focuses particularly on the first two steps of the proposed DSR approach, providing the groundwork for the next steps.