Distributed self-consumption configurations and Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) represent one of the most innovative products of energy legislation and regulation. In order to fully understand the rationale and characteristics of this discipline, the paper retraces the main stages of development of energy production from renewable sources. In the 1990s, with the exception of hydroelectric and geothermal plants, the use of renewable energy sources was marginal. From 2000, the liberalisation of the sector and the introduction of Green Certificates created new opportunities, and in 2005, the “Conto Energia” (Energy Account) marked a significant shift by incentivizing over 500,000 photovoltaic plants, the majority of which were small and self-consuming. The possibility of reducing energy costs continued to encourage the construction of new photovoltaic systems in self-consumption mode even after the closure of “Conto Energia” in 2013. Consolidating the propensity for physical self-consumption leads to a natural transition to widespread self-consumption.