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Italy made a passionate case for geothermal at the recent climate talks

Italy made a passionate case for geothermal at the recent climate talks Bagnore 3 plant, Tuscany, Italy (source: Enel Green Power)
Alexander Richter 14 Dec 2015

Italien representatives including the country's Prime Minister make a passionate plea for geothermal energy at the COP21, mentioning the great role and history of geothermal at Larderello and Tuscany.

In his keynote address at Cop21, the UN climate conference that just closed in Paris, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi described geothermal as on the top of the list of the accomplishments for sustainable energy development and Italy as a world leader.

This, so in his speech, requires in particular to mention Tuscany. This region, specifically, Larderello is the birth place of geothermal power generation. Here for the first time, an industrial plant generated electricity from geothermal resources and essentially established a benchmark.

Maria Teresa Fagioli, president of the Order of Geologists of Tuscany, made an appeal to Cop21, urging the world to look at Tuscany in the discussion son climate change. “Look at Tuscany, the great resource of geothermal heat needs some more attention. Solar and wind energy sources are important but when there is no sun or no wind; geothermal energy from the depth never abandons us, it is just a matter of managing asset accumulation. ”

The contribution of geothermal energy utilisation to Tuscany, both in terms of energy supply and cutting the emission of greenhouse gases, is very significant. As recently pointed out the general director of the Consortium for the development of geothermal areas (COSVIG), Sergio Chiacchella, “every year thanks to geothermal energy in Tuscany, were spared more than 1,200,000 tons of oil equivalent, 4,000,000 tons of CO2 , and maintain jobs for about 1,700 people – directly or indirectly – thanks to geothermal energy, and over 6,000 families enjoy the benefits of district heating. ”

“Geothermal energy – remarks today the President Fagioli – could save humanity a significant slice of harmful emissions into the atmosphere”, pointing out two different types of technological developments, both already prosecute. As for “the first category, the most famous and flamboyant (volcanoes, fumaroles, geysers), it has the possibility of being used to produce electricity and for all human activities for which serves boiling water: Alternatively, you burn fuel. It needs to function, of geological special and rare, of significant investments and has generated in the past justified concerns, but this is not to be thrown away. The recipe is knowing and planning well: you can do it, it must be done. ” Then there is “the second category that is perhaps more interesting, because unlike the first, is available almost everywhere, and is available to anyone costs” family “. It is the solar heat that accumulates in the subsoil in the vicinity of the surface, and which can be extracted to “environmental cost zero”. To do so, it uses the so-called “geothermal” coupled with the special and very cheap machines that wring out heat sources also just warm: the so-called “heat pumps”. ” The subsoil can finally also be used as a reservoir to store heat. One can “re-inject heat in the ground, when for example in summer, on the surface we have in abundance, indeed, sometimes in excess. So the ground can be used as a storage of heat. ”

For human activities energy supply is a vital factor in the proper sense of the term. Aware that the zero impact on the environment does not exist, but you can make a choice: fossil fuels or renewable? “Think about all – concludes Fagioli – geothermal can generate electricity and heat houses, offices, factories that therefore would no longer need to burn one liter of oil or coal for this purpose.”

Source:  Green Report