Tuscan geothermal energy, when underground resources are a development leverage for territories

by Loredana Torsello, CoSviG and DTE2V, Riccardo Basosi, Università di Siena and DTE2V, Dario Bonciani and Sergio Chiacchella, CoSviG

DOI 10.12910/EAI2017-031

An important example of territories pursuing their own development model, which meets life quality, conservation of the environmental and cultural heritage and new technologies, thanks to agreements between territories and the industrial subject

The two Tuscan geothermal areas, location of the Italian geothermal power plants, are in the south-central parts of the region. Thanks to these territories, Tuscany can be considered the world cradle of geothermal energy, since first experiments to use geothermal steam to turn on a light bulb were performed in 1904 in Larderello, whereas the world’s first geothermal power plant (250 kWe) was installed in the same place, in 1913. In 2015, power plants installed in Tuscany, with a total capacity of 915.5 MWe, produced about 6,200 GWh, making Italy the main geothermal power producer in Europe. …