The first informational event organized by Sotacarbo on the topic of Renewable Energy Communities took place on Friday May 24^th at the premises of the Centro Anziani ODV in Carbonia. The initiative, included in the field of dissemination activities of PTR 2022-2024 of the Electric System Research, project 1.5 “High efficiency buildings for energy transition”, involved a hundred or so participants.

After the opening greetings of the president of the association Emilio Podda and the institutional greetings of the Carbonia Municipality Councilor for public works and environment Manolo Mureddu, the matter was handed over to Sotacarbo’s energy efficiency research manager, Francesca Poggi, for a short introduction on the event and the related topics.

The first speech “Acting for the energy and the planet: citizens’ contribution towards an energetically sustainable future” was given by Engr. Poggi, who preliminarily presented Sotacarbo’s activities in the field of energy efficiency, and then subsequently developed an in-depth discussion on the role of individual citizens to contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency in their own households and to avoid waste, as part of a global awareness campaign.

The second speech “RECs: what they are, opportunity for citizens, examples on the territory” was given by Engr. Giulia Cau. During the presentation key concepts on energy communities as established by the recent legislation, the available incentives and how to set them up were presented. Some small numerical examples were proposed to explain to citizens the opportunities that energy communities can offer, also showcasing existing projects in Sardinia.

The third speech “AUREE portal and REC section” was introduced by Engr. Eusebio Loria, who presented the web portal Auree.it highlighting its functionalities and the opportunities for local stakeholders, focusing especially on the section dedicated to energy communities.

At the end of the presentations a Q&A session was held with the audience during which it became evident, from the many questions that the citizens asked to Sotacarbo researchers, that great interest was put in this topic. The event was fundamental because the population understood the opportunities that arise with RECs, manifesting their willingness to join them. On this topic, councilor Mureddu also expressed the willingness of the Municipality of Carbonia to create a REC harnessing the many roofs of municipal buildings and of some buildings of the Grande Miniera di Serbariu, including the ones of Sotacarbo Research Centre.

At the end of the event, the participants replied to a feedback questionnaire regarding the event itself and its topics, which confirmed both their interest on energy topics and their intention to better understand these topics to be able to make conscious, sustainable and energy efficient choices. Giulia Cau