Shaping the social purpose of renewable energy communities: Intermediary roles and energy justice in Italy's early experience

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are meant to deliver not only clean energy but also environmental, economic and social benefits to their members and local communities, as required by EU law. Yet how this broader social purpose is put into practice remains underexplored. This article examines how intermediary actors — the local authorities, cooperatives, non-profit organisations and other bodies involved in developing RECs — shape its delivery. Using an energy justice framework, we analyse ten REC projects developed under Italy's transitional regulatory framework introduced in 2020, based on semi-structured interviews with key intermediary actors. We identify three mechanisms explaining variation in justice outcomes. First, who leads a REC matters: local authority-led projects achieved wider participation but more cautious benefit-sharing, while non-profit- and cooperative-led projects more actively targeted vulnerable households and experimented with benefit allocation. Second, limited regulatory guidance gave intermediaries considerable discretion in translating broad social objectives into practice, making justice outcomes more dependent on their priorities and capacities. Third, intermediaries were more effective where they could draw on existing local relationships and trust, supporting more inclusive governance and engagement with vulnerable groups. These findings show that intermediaries are not neutral facilitators but active shapers of whether RECs deliver on their social purpose. Justice outcomes therefore cannot be assumed from the legal definition of RECs alone. Clearer regulatory guidance on implementing social objectives, together with support for intermediary capacity and transparent benefit-allocation rules, is needed if community energy is to contribute more consistently to a just energy transition.