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Construction on new geothermal plant at Castel Giorgio, Umbria could start November

Construction on new geothermal plant at Castel Giorgio, Umbria could start November Lago di Bolsena, Tuscany/ Italy (source: flickr/ heleenmeijer, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 3 Aug 2019

With government approval, developer ITW LKW Geotermia Italia expects start of work on Castel Giorgio geothermal project in Umbria/ Italy to start in November 2019.

After the go ahead of the Council of Ministers, the first signs for the beginning of the works for the construction of the geothermal plant of Castel Giorgio begin to arrive.

If there are no problems, although the mayors of Lake Bolsena have already declared their intention to protest, the construction site will start as early as November, counting on contracts for up to EUR 12 million for civil works and with hiring of up to 50 local employees. Diego Righini, the manager of developer ITW LKW Geotermia Italia S.p.a. , who announced a meeting with the citizens of Castel Giorgio, reiterated that the geothermal plant will be “The first in the world with zero impact, with zero seismic risks and zero infection of surface waters ”.

However, the reassurances did not serve to calm the waters of local politics. In fact, many continue to be convinced that the arrival of the plant is far from a good idea. Among these, the deputy of Fratelli d’Italia, Mauro Rotelli, who from Facebook remembers the “devastating effects” of the Latera geothermal power plant, which remained in operation for only one year. However, the arrival of the plant continues to unite many fringes of politics.

After the statements of the regional councilor Enrico Panunzi (PD), arrived those of Marco Tolli, the PD Federation commissioner of Viterbo: “The Democratic Party of Viterbo wants to continue to stand side by side with the local communities that have repeatedly expressed in the years firmly and motivated opposition to the project proposed by ITW-LKW Italy geothermal power for the construction of a geothermal power plant near Lake Bolsena.

Geothermal energy is considered one of the forms of renewable energy and therefore to be encouraged and developed, but only in a framework of real environmental sustainability. In this case there are no minimum conditions to proceed: the high Tuscia, and the whole area of Lake Bolsena, presents very high values from an environmental, landscape and naturalistic point of view ”. The only ones to remain divided on the “no geothermal” front are Forza Italia and the Lega, who have come at odds with the clash between the deputy mayor of Bolsena Andrea Di Sorte and the Northern League senator Umberto Fusco .

Source: La Mia Citta News

Note: We adapted the article and title to reflect the fact that the project is in the region of Umbria and not Tuscany as we previously wrote. We apologise for the mistake.