Renewables, energy saving and welfare in Italian fragile rural areas

The aim of the paper is to verify whether energy transition, seen as a development of renewable energy sources (RES) and energy savings, has an impact on welfare in rural areas where green energy infrastructures have been installed. The study is based on two assumptions: the first is that RES generally need wide spaces more frequently located in open, not built, rural areas; the second is that some rural areas are facing severe welfare issues like ageing of the population, poverty, and cutbacks in social services. We suppose that material and immaterial resources like new jobs, royalties, and social cohesion can derive to these exhausted communities from energy provision or saving. The study concerns four Italian rural areas, each selected because of the presence within it of an important energy structure. The framework for analyzing the two fields – welfare and energy – is a combination of the institutional and network approaches (Owen-Smith and Powell 2008). Both traditions of study meet the need to achieve knowledge on sectors deeply affected by public intervention (policies) and by restricted business circles (oligopolies).