ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY IN VULNERABLE AREAS IN SOUTH ITALY

The research starts in the framework of a work aimed to define models and projects for energy sustainability in low income natural reserves of South Italy. The work involved a multidisciplinary group with experience in the fields of governance, rules and regulations, planning and technology. After a preliminary call and screening, 23 communities were involved in the project; some of them are large parks located in hilly or mountain areas, others are marine areas and waterfronts or small islands. In general these communities have few economic resources but rich potential of renewable energy sources. Focusing on the energy field, a common methodology was defined and a set of definitions was provided. Each community was involved in searching and giving all data needed for the elaboration of its actual energy balance and then improved energy scenarios were defined taking into account the peculiarities of each area. Despite similar conditions, the obtained responses were very different depending on many factors like environmental consciousness, public administrators involvement, number of inhabitants and dimension of territory, main sectors and developed activities etc. In some cases, during the process some barriers were highlighted regarding political and administrative slowness and distorted visions of energy sustainability among the most part of the involved stakeholders. As result of the applied methodology, the most suitable and promising communities were selected and the last phase of the work will be aimed to define and to finance proper projects for improving their energy systems. Achieved results could represent a precious basis for better orienting similar initiatives in the future.