The The Belìce Valley as a Territorial Laboratory: from Public Policy Experimentation to a Large-area Administration Strategy

Abstract

The topic of energy transition has long since become a central element of European policy, because it is now clear that progress and environmental protection are strongly correlated and, in conditions of scarce energy resources, development must necessarily be sustainable. In order for these goals to be achievable, transition support tools designed for local communities have been introduced. The application of these instruments is aimed at ensuring the reconversion of obsolete production sites, guaranteeing access to energy, creating job opportunities and providing vocational training. Among these tools, energy communities are forms of energy production and self-consumption carried out by a coalition of users who produce, consume and manage energy through small-scale energy plants. Italy has already been the recipient of interventions aimed at territorial cohesion for a decade, and in Sicily the experimentation of energy communities could have a competitive advantage due to its geographical location. Our research aimed to observe a Sicilian hinterland that, shaped over time by natural events and human actions, could benefit from the application of energy communities in rural areas. Since our observation was made at the same time as the adoption of regulatory actions under the European Union Transition Policy, we believe that this analysis can introduce us into a new perspective where it is possible to frame certain parts of marginal territories, such as the Belìce Valley, which was also affected by destructive events, forced to face choices related to the socio-economic survival of its communities.
Finally, we propose the possibility, according to the Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI) as a policy for local development, to join another policy field, that of post-earthquake reconstruction in Sicily. The communities and territories should be better involved in a partnership board to write an area strategy and choose the best locations in the area, for once not to the detriment of local communities but rather in their favor, in total connection with the aims of the energy communities.