{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,13]],"date-time":"2026-02-13T11:44:54Z","timestamp":1770983094460,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,26]],"date-time":"2022-09-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1664150400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Commission Joint Research Centre","award":["35332"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["35332"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Energies"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Energy Communities (EC) are becoming a major driver to foster the energy transition in Europe and the regulatory framework adopted by each Member State (MS) plays a key role for a prosperous deployment of ECs. This paper is thus divided into two layers. The first layer of this paper addresses the current regulations introduced by MSs regarding ECs, providing a critical comparison of each solution used. The second layer of research concerns the introduction of a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization algorithm early studied by some of the authors furtherly developed to assess the conditions that favour prosumers\u2019 participation to ECs. Both these models have been tested on a case study located in the city of Magliano Alpi, in the north of Italy. The results demonstrate that the proposed methodology correctly evaluates the key parameters influencing participation of citizens in ECs and indicate that for the Italian EC under study, there is the possibility to further expand the capacity installed without undermining the profitability of investment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/en15197072","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,27]],"date-time":"2022-09-27T23:12:12Z","timestamp":1664320332000},"page":"7072","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":25,"title":["To Join or Not to Join? The Energy Community Dilemma: An Italian Case Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Federico","family":"De Santi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Energy Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Matteo","family":"Moncecchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Energy Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Prettico","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 21027 Ispra, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gianluca","family":"Fulli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 21027 Ispra, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sergio","family":"Olivero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Energy Center, Politecnico di Torino, 10138 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"Renewable Energy Community \u201cEnergy City Hall\u201d of Magliano Alpi, 12060 Cuneo, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4091-0733","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marco","family":"Merlo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Energy Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"European Commission, and Joint Research Centre (2020). 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