• Energy Research
• 7. Clean energy close
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• National Research Council close

Geothermal energy has similar social acceptability issues as other renewable energy technologies. The territory of a geothermal project should be known in depth, understood and respected, including the public and its value, the energy issues and the entire socio-economic and political context as well. This knowledge can only be acquired with the tools provided by social sciences. It will be the key to build a project adapted to the territory, to communicate with and engage the public in a suitable way. Three tools helpful in fostering constructive interactions with the public have been examined: information sharing, creating local benefits, and public participation.

The paper addressed the issue of the emergence of renewable energy communities (RECs) in Italy, after the related law which entered into force in 2020 allowing the possibility of creating them. We especially focused on the process of creating alliances among different actors - professional, institutions, NGOs, citizens - highlighting possible trends or models for the future that need to be verified in further research. The approach proposed to carry out the analysis of this current process is the Actor-Network Theory, aiming at drawing the assemblages of human and non-human actants at a general level. In accordance with this analysis, we selected three case studies in order to show their different ways of organising, the relevance of the trust in establishing each REC and of local context in affecting the composition and features of the actor-networks. The proposed analysis aimed to show how it is possible to identify different networks in accordance with the different visions of the RECs and the socio-economic needs related to the various geographical areas of Italy. This kind of research and its rationale could be useful and replicable in relation to countries featuring considerable internal differences such as Italy.