| Abstract |
With a net electricity generation of 5.8 TWh (TERNA, 2016), an installed capacity of 1300 MW of heat for direct uses (Conti et al., 2016), and considering the number and size of Italian industries in the sector and the abundance of scientific papers from Italian institutions, Italy is undoubtedly rich of geothermal resources and expert in geothermal technologies. But it appears that such a high profile is not reflected on the society, and geothermal energy technologies in Italy, as in most European countries, are much less familiar to the general public than other renewable technologies (Eurobarometer, 2011; Pellizzone et al. 2015, 2017). On the other hand, the specialists consider and treat the geothermal sector as a houte couture boutique, each site requiring a tailor-made geothermal project. The lack of awareness combined with an atmosphere of highly-specialized technology that only a few can correctly manage have produced a chemical reaction, resulting in an unbalanced compound with two opposite products: an aggressive refusal for geothermal development in the territories as soon as a new plant is proposed, and the indifference of central and regional administration, reflected by the lack of proper regulation, useful incentives and effective participation of geothermal energy in the energy plans. As a result, Italian geothermal production is increasing very slowly, both for electricity and heat use. When on 2010 the National Research Council (CNR) was given the duty to pave the road for market uptake of geothermal technologies in Southern Italy, the two projects that were carried out (VIGOR and the Geothermal Atlas) focused on spreading the awareness of geothermal energy. Many documents and products are now available, including: maps of geothermal potential for geothermal heat pump applications, electricity, district heating and district heating&cooling in 4 regions; maps of favourability to host hydrothermal, EGS and other unconventional geothermal systems in 9 regions; a series of documents explaining the technologies for producing electricity and heat (including geothermal heat pumps, district heating, greenhouses, industrial and other applications) from geothermal resources, including the description of national and international running projects for production of combined heat and power, cheese and wine production, district heating using mine waters; a description of regulation and authorization process at national and regional level (in four regions); a report of environmental aspects of geothermal energy projects, data and best practice for impact minimization; geological, technical and economic feasibility studies, including a description of administrative documents to prepare for authorization, for eight different geothermal energy applications (individual heating&cooling by open and closed loop geothermal heat pumps, district heating&cooling from high and low temperature geothermal resources, combined heat and power production, sewage sludge dehydration, balneology), as examples of the variety of use from resources in a wide range of temperature (Bruno et al., 2016; Galgaro et al., 2015; Trumpy et al., 2015, 2016). |