The long-standing public-private dichotomy allows light to be shed on the innovative topic of renewable energy communities, founded on collaboration among citizens, businesses, and public administrations that can also be realized through the flexible and atypical form of public-private partnership. The renewable energy communities overcome the previous, and long-dominant, centralized energy system model through a public-private partnership aimed at the pursuit of economic, social and environmental goals, which leverages a new model of (distributed) energy generation at the heart of the energy transition.