Smart Solutions
Solar Energy Roofs
Installation of a scattered network of solar panels on roofs and terraces within a village through a community-led process.
Implemented in : Melpignano
Country : Italy
How do you rate this example?
- What’s the solution?
- What makes it smart?
- How is the solution implemented?
- In what local context has it been applied?
- Who was behind the implementation?
- What was the local journey?
- What have been the main outputs & results?
- What does it bring the village/community?
- What’s needed
- What to do…
- and not to do.
Where and when
Implemented in : Melpignano
Country : Italy
Population : 2240
Date : 18/07/2011 – 18/07/2014
Find out more
Contact person : Grazia Giovannetti
E-mail : coop.comunita.melpignano@gmail.com
Link(s) :
Last updated : 13/06/22
What’s the solution?
The solution involves the purchase and installation of solar panels and inverters on a network of private roofs and terraces through a community-driven process. Homeowners are thus able to harness solar energy, use a part of that energy in their own home and pool the surplus energy in order to sell it on the local market on behalf of the community.
Through community organisation, the village is able to bulk purchase the necessary equipment, arrange a bank loan to cover initial investment costs and use the profits from the sale of the surplus energy for community projects.
What makes it smart?
The solution is smart because it combines new technologies with social innovation in order to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits for the village.
It demonstrates social innovation through the creation of a community cooperative to establish the solar network with panels bought and installed at relatively low cost through the collaborative approach. The initiative involves the local community in managing all aspects of the solution and strengthens local governance, enhancing the potential for additional collaborative initiatives.
It demonstrates technological innovation through the installation of a scattered network of solar panels and inverters on roofs and terraces enabling the collection, use and sale on the local market of clean energy.
It delivers economic benefits through the sale of surplus energy on the market meaning that it is entirely self-funding in the medium and long terms (requiring only an initial loan to cover the installation costs), environmental benefits through the production of clean energy and social benefits through the creation of jobs and new community organisations.
How is the solution implemented?
- Map the local housing to find suitable sites (roofs, terraces or other) for installing solar panels.
- Consult the local community to estimate the potential interest in a community-driven solar network.
- Create a community organisation – if one does not already exist – to run and manage the project.
- Research the availability of subsidies for clean energy projects – at local, regional and national levels.
- Seek finance from a bank where necessary to cover the initial investment costs.
- It is likely to be necessary to seek a guarantor for a bank loan – including cooperatives or public authorities.
- Purchase the solar panels and inverters ‘in bulk’ to reduce costs.
In what local context has it been applied?
Melpignano is located in the inner area of Salento, in the Apulia region of Italy. The village is experiencing the problems shared by most of the Italian inner areas, such as a lack of attractiveness and depopulation. While in the 1960s the emigration of residents to Germany and Switzerland was considerable, more recently the trend has been that young people have left the village to study and look for better working opportunities in northern Italy, contributing to a sense of economic decline.
At the beginning of the 2000s, large areas of the countryside in Salento, where Melpignano is located, which were previously used for olive groves were turned over for the installation of solar panels on the ground. Even though the production of clean energy created relevant profits for the landowners and to national and international companies investing there, the lands used for solar plants were progressively turned into a desert, with negative effects on the landscape and the environment.
Nevertheless, the village has a long tradition of collaborative governance, with a strong sense of community and civic engagement by the residents, which led to attempts to tackle challenges faced by the village collaboratively.
Who was behind the implementation?
The Municipality of Melpignano is the main driver of the solution, which was then implemented by the Melpignano Community Cooperative which operates in an autonomous way and has its own governance bodies.
Currently, the cooperative has 300 members and carries out a wide range of projects in different fields (including also culture and inclusion). The model of community cooperative created in Melpignano was then replicated by other municipalities in Italy and inspired the creation of a regional law in Apulia (recognising community cooperatives as being ones having 10% of the residents as members in towns with less than 5000 inhabitants).
What was the local journey?
- The Municipality was the initial instigator of the solution, establishing a collaboration with the University of Lecce (in the provincial capital) to explore how to reverse the exploitation of the lands surrounding the village and the sense of economic decline with the active collaboration of residents.
- A study produced by the University of Lecce in 2009 showed that 180 families of Melpignano had single-family houses with a flat roof that could be used for installing solar plants.
- The Municipality of Melpignano launched the idea of offering to use of the roofs to the corporations already active in the solar sector in the Salento area, but a series of meetings with Legacoop (the oldest and most important Italian cooperative organisation) led to considering as an alternative the creation of a bottom-up management system with the residents involved in all the phases of the project
- A survey was launched by the Municipality and the University of Lecce to check if the residents were in favour of offering their roofs for the installation of solar panels. The majority of the residents expressed their interest in being part of the initiative
- A group of residents created the Melpignano Community Cooperative, promoting a collaborative model of management. In July 2011 the statute of the cooperative was finalised in collaboration with a notary and then signed in the main square of Melpignano by 71 members of the Melpignano Community Cooperative
- Through the use of national clean energy incentives for purchasing solar panels and inverters - and a bank loan - the Community Cooperative bought the initial 29 solar panels.
- The main challenge of implementing the solution was to find the initial resources for buying the first solar power equipment. The fact of being a new type of organisation - not previously recognised by public authorities - meant this type of cooperative was out of the regular banking procedures. This was resolved in the short-term thanks to Legacoop offering to be the guarantor of the bank loan for the Community Cooperative. In the longer term, this is one of the issues that was solved through the creation of a new regional law on community cooperatives.
- Another big challenge was that a change in national legislation reduced the incentives available for the installation of solar panels and inverters. This reduced the creation of new solar roofs in the village. Nevertheless, some of the members of the cooperative invested their own money in buying the solar panels to be installed on their roofs. They did this still in the framework of the Community Cooperative, in order to pay them at a lower price than the market price.
- All 29 of the solar panels were installed on roofs in the village by 2014. Local engineers were in charge of creating the technical projects, while the installation and the maintenance of the domestic solar plants was guaranteed by the local workforce.
- The solar panels were given under a contract of bailment for 20 years to the residents (who will become owners of the panels at the end of the contract).
- The energy generated was in part used for free by the owners of the roof, while the remaining part was sold on the market locally.
- The incentives received from the national level and the profits generated by selling the surplus energy were assigned to the cooperative, and used initially for paying back the bank loan and then reinvested by the Municipality in projects for the local community, such as covering the costs of books and canteens for students of underprivileged families.
What have been the main outputs & results?
- Installation of 29 solar plants on the roofs of private houses.
- Use of energy produced by renewable sources for many households (the Community Cooperative has 300 members).
- Creation of new jobs in the fields related to the production of clean energy (project management, installation and maintenance of solar panels, etc.).
- Production of 223902 Kw of energy from renewable sources per year.
- 118892 kg of CO2 emissions saved every year (multiplied for 30 years of average life of a solar plant: 2567 tons).
- Creation of social projects and activities for the local community with the profits of the energy surplus sold on the market.
- Increased trust towards local production of renewable energy.
What does it bring the village/community?
The solution provides financial, social and environmental benefits which can support the long-term sustainable development of the village, in particular through:
- Creation of new jobs and revival of different sectors of the local economy notably in the solar energy sector
- Creation of new activities for the local community thanks to the profits generated by the energy surplus sold on the market
- Promotion of new forms of civic engagement and bottom up auto-organisation of the residents
- Better local governance of challenges related to energy and environment
- Reduced local pollution and environmental costs thanks to the use of a clean energy source.
What’s needed
Financial resources
Main types of cost:
Initial/set-up costs: € 400 000
• Purchase of the machinery for production of solar energy (solar panels and inverters to be installed on roofs)
• Creation of the technical project, installation, maintenance and cleaning of the solar panels
• Registration costs for the creation of the Community Cooperative
Ongoing/recurring annual costs: € 29 000 (on average)
• Management of the Community Cooperative
• Monitoring, maintenance and cleaning of the solar panels
Financial needs:
Initial/set-up costs: € 400 000
Ongoing/recurring annual costs: € 29 000 (on average)
Funding received:
| Source | Amount | Funded |
|---|---|---|
| Initial bank loan (guaranteed by a large cooperative) and repaid by the Community Cooperative | 400,000 € | Purchase of the solar panels and inverters to be installed on the roofs |
| Sale of the surplus energy by the Community Cooperatives | 29,000 € | Consulting and accounting services, salaries of the permanent staff + monitoring, maintenance and cleaning of the solar panels (amount provided is the annual expenditure) |
Human resources
• Engineering service for the creation of technical projects of the systems to be installed
• Electrician and metalworkers services for the installation of the solar panels
• Staff for the management of the Cooperative
• Board of Directors overseeing the ordinary management of the project
• Members Assembly to approve the annual budget and decide on which additional social projects invest the resources generated by selling the surplus energy on the market
Physical resources
• Flat roofs for installing the solar panels
• Support base for installing the solar panels and the inverter
What to do…
- Make a baseline study of the different bureaucratic options in order to have a clear picture of the sustainability of the project at legal level, according to the rapid devolution of national and regional legislation on production of clean energy.
- Meet the local community and explain the project with the help of local universities or knowledge centres which may help in addressing the challenges emerging from the participatory process.
- Define a strong idea of project with the local community and create the community cooperative after the launch of the first pilot action, in order to test if the mechanism works for that specific context.
- Gain a strong support of the local authority, in order to support civic engagement around the initiative.
and not to do
- Don’t create a legal statute for the Community Cooperative just focused on the production of energy from renewable sources, but keep it open for further initiatives that could be generated at local level as side effects of the process (social projects, etc.).
- Don’t include in the Board of Directors only volunteer members but also people with a technical background who can be helpful for pushing forward the different phases of decision making.
- Don’t give up in a bank initially turns you down for a loan – aim to find a suitable guarantor for the investment.
