The geothermal power plant of Larderello, Tuscany. Situated in the socalled valle del diavolo (devil’s valley), it produces 10% of the world’s supply of geothermal electricity amounting to 4,800 GWh per year and powering about a million Italian households
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And the geothermal energy that can be potentially extracted in Italy within a depth of 5 km is estimated to be enough to satisfy completely (or largely) the Italian domestic demand ([sources here](https://www.egec.org/geothermal-development-italy/)).
However costs, lack on investments, lack of regulations to incentivize the production of renewables and bureaucracy are hindering any progress.
5000 GWh/year? why not 700 MW, which is how power plnts output is measured
Curious if the name came from steam coming out of the earth i wonder.
Pretty sad to see places with plentiful renewable capabilities not doing much to decarbonize.
Note that geothermal isn’t necessarily clean.
While it may seem like “We’re just pumping energy from the earth!” is a perfect solution with no drawbacks what-so-ever the truth is a lot more complicated.
The release of greenhouse gasses due to geothermal power can vary from emissions as low as 34 g/kWh (average value for Icelands geothermal powerplants) to 1050 g/kWh (the average for the turkish geothermal powerplants located in the Buyuk Menderes graben).
Italy had (in 2002) an average of 330 g/kWh.
For reference a modern Natural gas powerplant releases 400 g/kWh and a coal plant burning the dirtiest lignite brown coal releases about 1100 g/kWh
This is because pressure differences, the flow of heat and water etc leads to CO2 being released from carbonate rock (common in magma rich areas) and other sources where it might be fixed/dissolved in calcite rock and CO2 rich groundwater.
So average power output of 548 MW, like a large-ish gas or coal power station.
I’ve been around there, and I can smell this post.