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The European Union has been allocating funds for the energy transition to meet escalating global energy demands while minimising the environmental impact. This paper focuses on the impact of post-pandemic policies on photovoltaic technology in Italy and Portugal, specifically analysing self-consumption schemes and energy communities. A techno-economic assessment identified optimal PV systems for four families in each country, considering financial incentives. Italy offers Superbonus 110 and Ecobonus schemes, while Portugal provides access to the Environmental Fund. Profitable PV systems with storage are feasible in Italy but not in Portugal. Superbonus 110 favours smaller systems, Ecobonus supports larger ones, and Portuguese policies prioritise smaller systems. Simulations of energy communities for the same families showed that in Italy, the best configurations consist of families acting as producers with larger PV capacities and smaller batteries. In contrast, in Portugal, the policies favour smaller PV systems without batteries, resulting in optimal configurations where families are solely consumers. This research underscores diverse national approaches to post-pandemic energy policies and their nuanced impacts on PV technology in Italy and Portugal. It can be concluded that energy communities offer greater profitability than individual self-consumption schemes. This is because individual households continue to prioritise self-consumption and personal savings while selling their excess energy at a more favourable price than what they would receive from the grid. • In Italy, there are financial incentives and in Portugal, electricity cost reductions. • The models used the Net Present Value and the Internal Rate of Return as indicators. • In Italy, Superbonus 100 favours smaller systems, while Ecobonus supports larger ones. • Smaller systems without batteries for self-consumption are more profitable in Portugal. • Energy communities are more economically viable in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The energy performances of solar-assisted HP for DHW for DHW are studied. • Configuration of HP equipped with PV and PVT panels are investigated. • Solar systems sized to serve small aggregates are studied. • The energy consumption is mainly influenced by the required DHW demand per day. • PVT thermal contribution slightly influences the system performances. The paper investigates the energy performances of several configurations of solar-assisted heat pumps equipped with photovoltaic (PV) and photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels as well as solar thermal collectors for domestic hot water production. The systems are sized to serve small aggregates of users assumed as micro energy communities in low housing density context in the South of Italy. Electricity storages are also considered to smooth the interaction with the electric grid. Several indices are defined and calculated to guide toward a correct sizing, to check users' satisfaction and to assess primary energy savings. The results show how the energy consumption from the analysed systems is mainly influenced by the amount and structure of domestic hot water demand per day. Also, according to the chosen plant layouts, it is shown that thermal contribution of PVT slightly influences the system performances. Better results in terms of less non-renewable primary energy consumption are recorded for the PV-based plant. Solar thermal collectors, even if sized for high solar fractions, do not properly support the daily heat pump operation, especially in winter, and present a certain electricity consumption for auxiliaries which results to be penalizing. Additional calculations were performed for the case of energy communities in a context with higher uses of non-renewable energy for electricity generation. Finally, opportunities to support demand-response actions for grid electricity management were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]