URBAN METABOLISM AND THE ENERGY TRANSITION: from sectoral planning to the energy susceptibility of urban fabric

The contribution explores the complex and historically unresolved relationship between spatial planning and the dynamics of urban energy metabolism, highlighting the urgent need for a radical epistemological and methodological paradigm shift within the urban planning discipline. Historically relegated to a merely technological dimension or to sectoral programming devoid of real spatial stringency, energy must today be conceptualised as an intrinsic ordering principle of urban form. The essay introduces and problematises the theoretical construct of the energy susceptibility of settlement fabrics, understood as the differentiated aptitude of urban morphology to dictate specific energy needs, host site-specific renewable potential and facilitate the local sharing of resources. In light of the recent European and Italian regulatory frameworks on Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and widespread self-consumption, energy infrastructure assumes a profound territorial and social value. RECs, rigidly delimited around the catchment areas of primary substations, cease to be mere economic incentive mechanisms to transform into structural devices for urban regeneration. Through the critical analysis of advanced methodological experiences and the prospective integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), it is demonstrated how the energy transition must translate into a performance-based zoning integrated into General Urban Plans. This paradigm is capable of synergistically driving decarbonisation, mitigating energy poverty and improving the quality of the built environment.