Geothermal energy can be an integral part of the acceleration process in the energy transition in Italy: with this message, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Pichetto Fratin spoke at the conference organized on the topic by the Hon. Luca Squeri, at the Chamber of Deputies, on October 8, 2024.

Also present at the event was RSE , whose CEO explained the opportunities and the impact, under different profiles, of using low, medium and high enthalpy geothermal energy (respectively below 90°, between 90° and 150° and above 150°), illustrating the tools developed and the main research activities in which RSE is at the forefront on the subject.

Geothermal energy in Italy dates back 120 years, to 1904, in Larderello, when the first five light bulbs were turned on in an innovative attempt to produce electricity from the energy contained in geothermal steam.

“Today, geothermal energy is an important sector for Italy not only for its main characteristics – it is renewable and programmable – but also because it can be used to extract critical raw materials of great importance, such as boron and lithium,” explained Cotana . “By integrating with non-programmable sources, such as wind power and photovoltaic, geothermal energy as a programmable renewable energy can help to stabilize the electricity grid,” he added.

And even in the future, geothermal energy will be able to play a significant role. Looking to 2050, for the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) and RSE, geothermal energy will have to become part of the energy mix useful to guarantee safety, independence and adequacy in the production of the energy required by our country.

Cotana recalled the support that RSE provides to MASE but also to Italian manufacturing : in fact, it has been committed for years to making available to operators and industries the findings of its research useful for developing future projects with a view to efficiency and competitiveness. For example, RSE has created the wind, solar and geothermal atlas. For high enthalpy, a mapping of Italy is already available and the agreement recently signed with INGV aims to refine the granulometry and particularity also in medium and low enthalpy.

From an application point of view, there are multiple benefits of geothermal energy.

“The possibility of having a closed loop heat exchange with aquifers , like in Rome, a few meters deep , would enable extremely high energy efficiency , because the smaller the distance between the external source and the environment to be heated or cooled, the greater the efficiency of the heat pumps. The urban heat island effect is not secondary. In large cities summer temperatures can reach up to 10° higher than in the countryside: this is due to the fact that all air conditioning systems release heat into the streets. Think of the benefits there would be if a heat pump exchanged heat with the aquifer, with the ground, and how much weaker the impact would be on the electrical networks currently engaged in powering air conditioners; air conditioners that also have a negative impact, from a landscape point of view, on the facades of the buildings in our country, including historical ones,” explained Cotana.

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