Innovations and Conflicts in Local Renewable Energy Management: a Comparison Among Four Italian Case-Studies

the diffusion of renewable energies is increasing also in Italy, due toincentives from the government and to the EU 2020 strategy, aimed to decreasegreenhouse gases. In the last years the electricity produced by wind farms, solarpanels and biomass is considerably increased in all Europe, however in some contextthe introduction of «green» energies has been stopped by controversies and territorialconflicts. In particular, in the Italian context the oppositions against wind farms seemto be related to aesthetic and economic reasons: on the one hand wind turbines areperceived as detrimental to the landscape; on the other hand are considered to bepoorly efficient from the economic point of view. The paper tends to analyse someaspects that might influence the outputs of political decisions regarding renewableenergy: role of local administrations, involvement of civil society in local policy-makingand emergence of conflicts between local actors. The empirical research takes intoconsideration four Italian case-studies that show different ways of managing wind farmsand different levels of controversies among local populations. Here it is argued thatoutputs in environmental and energy policies seem to be determined by combinedand diversified aspects such as relationships between local institutions, civil societyand citizenship, the role of conflicting actors and environmental organizations andthe existence of a bottom-up approach to involving local communities.