| Abstract |
The first world experiment of power production from geothermal resources was performed in 1904 in Larderello, Italy. In the same area the first commercial power plant (250 kW) started production in 1913. The installed capacity has been increasing continuously during the subsequent years and, up to 1958, when a first unit was installed in New Zealand, Italy has been the sole country in the world that had developed this technology. Subsequently, the utilization of geothermal resources for power production has been developed in several other countries, with a significant increase in the period 1980-2000 (at a rate of about 1,000 MW every 5 years). At present, the total capacity is about 8,000 MW in 24 countries, with about 50,000 GWh/y energy production. Over the last 20 years, technological development has been particularly significant for exploration methodologies, reservoir characterization, drilling technologies, power plant efficiency, improvement and reduction of environmental impact. The development of binary cycle technologies has opened new prospects to the utilization of medium temperature resources. This technology is at present widely utilized. New technologies for the H2S and Hg abatement and environmental impact mitigation have also been developed. Of great relevance are the research and development activities carried out in Larderello since the 70 |