Economic evaluation methodologies for Renewable Energy Communities and the architectural heritage. A literature review

This review aims to provide a general framework of the literature on economic sustainability and financial feasibility for RECs, focusing on the challenges related to the building stock and architectural heritage energy retrofit with the purpose of reducing running costs. In particular, this review analysed 95 research papers, focusing on the main used economic evaluation approaches and indicators for the assessment of a new or an existing REC. Results showed that the implementation of RECs deserves to be examined with a combination of complementary approaches able to guarantee a balance between economically sustainable and renewable energy systems and the buildings’ cultural, architectural and historical values. The articles data sample of the present research highlighted the presence of numerous methodologies and approaches that need to be combined to evaluate all the aspects of the RECs. Future research could develop a comprehensive methodological approach to evaluate the RECs’ economic sustainability by considering economic, energy and social benefits and preserving the buildings’ cultural value. This review draws a state-of-the-art of economic approaches and indicators for RECs to support the future developments of a standardized evaluation procedure in the context of the currently evolving regulatory framework.