The current paper contributes to the literature on community renewable energy by considering two projects developed in the north-west of Italy, in the Piedmont region. Community renewable energy is increasingly regarded by academic literature and policy discourse as crucial to ensure a socially and environmentally just energy transition. In spite of the growing diffusion of community renewable energy projects, there is still a lack of theoretically informed analyses. Our article tries to address this gap by combining two theoretical perspectives: the multilevel perspective and the socio-technical imaginaries approach. Applying the first perspective helps reconstruct the context and circumstances that have permitted the Piedmont’s energy community projects to emerge. Particular attention is given to the windows of opportunity created by the Regional Law 12/2018, which acknowledged the establishment of energy communities for the first time in Italy. The socio-technical imaginaries perspective allows the identification of collective ideas and meanings that emerge when individuals or groups promote a socio-technical innovation. Based on this analysis, three main future changes are associated with community renewable energy: an integral ecology approach, a stronger sense of community, and a local development opportunity for rural areas characterised by depopulation, a low employment rate, and high energy demand.

In Italy, an increasing number of historical buildings have been abandoned in the last decades. As a response, some local administrations decided to foster renovation projects to preserve their heritage for future generations. Among them, the northern municipality of Val di Zoldo (Veneto) relies on the European Shelter Project, which covers a part of the costs of renovating an ancient private barn called Mas di Sabe, which the community considers an identity symbol of local history and culture. For this reason, the local administration decided to acquire the structure through donations and expropriation, activating a commoning process of the Mas di Sabe. This process is based on the involvement of local inhabitants to identify the building’s future uses, which will inform the renovation project and the integration of renewable energy plants. Through thirteen semi-structured interviews, the study investigates how the collective memories of the building influence and are influenced by the commoning process of the Mas di Sabe. By analyzing the results and identifying five categories (future visions, collective memory, commoning process, energy, and resources), the study shows that collective memory and commoning process have a crucial role in determining people’s visions and imaginaries on historical buildings’ renovation.

There is currently a growing interest in lowering energy demand and, consequently, greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors. Several attempts by national governments to reduce energy demand are centered on the residential sector, since it accounts for a significant amount of the final energy demand. In order to estimate its energy demand and to evaluate the techno-economic effects of adopting energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, there are comprehensive models suited for residential applications, since energy demand characteristics of the residential sector are complicated and interrelated. Based on these models, several tools are nowadays available to support designers and policymakers. These tools are designed to be user-friendly and to include the possibility to develop simulated scenarios for energy demand, production of CO₂ emissions, and economic costs. The present study aims to offer an up-to-date extended overview of the most functional and widespread tools for the assessment of the current energy demand of the European building stock for space heating and cooling demand, both regarding open source and commercial licenses. Results highlighted the tools most commonly used by examining real applications, identifying their strengths and weaknesses and pinpointing the primary deficiencies for the benefit of future developers.