Geothermal Energy Use, Country Update for Italy (2010-2015)

This paper presents an overview on the development of geothermal energy applications in Italy during the six-years period 2010-2015. In Italy, the geothermal resources are used for both electricity generation and direct uses. Power plants are located in Tuscany, in the two “historical” areas of Larderello-Travale and Mount Amiata. Direct used are widespread over the whole Italian territory. To date, Enel Green Power is the only geo-electricity producer in Italy. In the year 2014, with an installed capacity of 915.5 MWe (807 MWe efficient capacity), the gross electricity generation reached 5.9 billion kWh, which represents the new record of electricity produced from geothermal resource in Italy; in 2014 one additional unit (Bagnore 4) was realized, increasing the capacity from 875.5 to 914.5 MWe. Regarding direct uses, the installed capacity reaches the value of around 1,300 MWt (+33% with respect to 2010), with an energy use of some 10,300 TJ/yr (+19% with respect to 2010). The main sectors of application are space heating (42% of the total energy) and thermal balneology (32% of the total energy), though numerous remarkable systems occur also in the industrial and agricultural sectors. Ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) constitute the main technology to exploit and deliver geothermal heat, but important developments have been observed also in the district heating (DH) sector. The first part of this paper deals with geo-electricity production (sections 1-5). Current status and future developments are illustrated with a particular focus on new power plants, drilling activities, personnel and investments. The second part (sections 6-9) describes the evolution of direct uses in Italy: the values into five main final sectors of application: space heating (including all HVAC systems), thermal balneology, agricultural uses, fish farming, and industrial processes plus minor uses. The contribution of geothermal-source heat pumps (GSHPs) and district heating networks (DHs) are broken down in each final sector. Besides, for direct uses, we provide a detailed exploitation of the terminology, assumptions, and methodology used to obtain the final statistics, pointing out the main issues that currently affect most reports on direct uses in terms of data collection and processing methods.