Geothermal energy: regulations and incentives underpin strong growth
While the debate on clean sources Italian is mainly focused on wind and solar power, there is a source that under track or, rather, under the earth, is preparing to meet a period of strong growth, particularly in our country.
We're talking about geothermal energy, the exploitation of natural heat inside the planet: especially in areas where the layers warm (over 90 degrees) are very close to the surface (geothermal anomaly) you can use this heat to produce electricity.
It is a resource certainly not new (in Italian is used for energy production since the beginning of the twentieth century), but that now appears ready to turn, also because of significant news from the regulatory point of view. The initial situation in Italy is not negative: the geothermal generation has known, from 1990 to 2011, an increase of 75%, from 3,222 GWh / year to 5,654 GWh / year, for a total capacity of 772 MW, a figure equal to about half of the installed power throughout Europe.
The limit is represented by the fact that, to date, all of the existing geothermal plants, which are managed exclusively by Enel Green Power, are located only in Tuscany, despite the geothermal resources are potentially very important in the whole area of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea. The scenario, however, seems likely to change significantly in the short term: according to the latest data available to the Union Geothermal Italian, in the last 3 years have been presented in Italy, from about thirty Italian and foreign companies, 108 requests for new permits research of geothermal resources for the generation of electricity.
Not only Tuscany
The most significant change is that in addition to the usual Tuscany (51 requests) between the regions in which they are received more requests for permission to search there are Lazio (34 questions), that in different parts of its territory has geological characteristics of the whole similar to Tuscany, Alto Adige (9), Sardinia (7), Sicily (6), in addition to an exploration permit offshore in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea.
The goal of this research is aimed at finding the geothermal fluids within a reference depth of 2 km, while some projects aim to raise fluids at greater depths and at higher temperatures, affecting also the marginal areas of geothermal fields already in operation. In addition to Enel Green Power, in the field there are international operators such as Gesture Italian Ltd. (a subsidiary of the Portuguese group Martifer) and Magma Energy srl Italy (linked to Canadian Magma Corporation).
Among the national players, there are names like Sorgenia, Erg, Saras, Repower, Rauch Geothermics and many others. We are witnessing, in short, a veritable explosion of requests that is unprecedented in the history of Italian exploitation of geothermal energy and could afford to largely exceed the provisions of the Italian Action Plan for renewable sources (Pan), who also assumed an increase in capacity of approximately 170 MW to 2020, with a total annual production of about 1,100 GWh. In fact, a recent study by the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC), Italy could have 923 MW already in operation by 2015.
Regulatory changes
The ride to the Italian geothermal has the base precise regulatory reasons, in particular, it is the consequence of the Legislative Decree. 22 11/2/2010 "Reorganization of the legislation on exploration and production of geothermal resources", issued in implementation of art. 27 of L. n.99/2009. Among the main innovations introduced by this decree there was the elimination of the rules of L. n. 896/86 who attributed the preference to Enel and Eni for the issuance of permits and, in particular, the activities of the exclusive cultivation of geothermal resources for Enel in the provinces of Grosseto, Livorno, Pisa and Siena.
The Decree also introduced legislation to allow the Regions to regulate the exploitation of geothermal resources based on the evaluation of the "interference" between new businesses and activities already under concession. Finally, the Decree has reduced the maximum area for research permits from 1000 to 300 km, introducing an overall ceiling for permits attributable to a single operator (1000 km2 to 5000 km2 regional level and at national level).
The new incentives
A further boost to growth in the sector is expected to arrive from encouraging: geothermal energy, in fact, is one of the few sectors to have been favored by the Decree on Renewable Electric launched amid controversy last July. Compared to the old system, which guaranteed a return of about 121 Euros per MWh for a plant of 5 MW, the new regime should provide subsidies of between 99 and 172 euro per MWh, depending on the type of installation. The reform, despite the concerns on some points, was greeted with satisfaction by the UGI substantial, particularly for 'Raising the threshold to 20 MW for participation in auctions, quotas until 2015 and the levels of 'incentive provided (even if they remain lower than those provided in the most important European countries). "
The low enthalpy geothermal energy
Besides the use for the production of electricity, in our country there is another booming, despite the absence of ad hoc incentives: it is the air conditioning of buildings with thermal energy produced by geothermal heat pumps.
The low enthalpy geothermal systems are based on an elementary observation: while the temperature of the air varies with a daily periodicity and annual temperature variations in the soil is affected by the external surface only in the first meters. The temperature variation decreases with depth and is negligible below 15 meters. In geothermal plants is a withdrawal of heat from the ground by conduction, by means of a carrier fluid that circulates in a closed circuit under the ground at a temperature lower than the surrounding terrain.
The main advantage is on the consumer side: the cost of management of geothermal plants is cheaper by about 50% compared to plants fueled with natural gas, with a payback time (without incentives) that ranges from a minimum of 6 years to a maximum of 12 years. Also, while the high temperature geothermal resources, usable for the production of electricity, are available only in limited areas of the country, those at a temperature lower than 30 degrees, thanks to exploitable geothermal heat pumps, exist almost everywhere, even in small depth.
The prospects
For this reason, the prospects are very positive data, whether European obligations in the field of energy consumption in buildings. Already in the past few years, the growth of geothermal Italian was determined mainly by the higher contribution of the direct use of heat (including geothermal pumps), which went from 0.2 Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2005 to 0.3 Mtoe in 2010, an average annual increase of 8, 5%.
As regards, however, the specific future of geothermal heat pumps, the Ugi expects a jump from 1,700 TJ (a) per year in 2010 to almost 4,700 TJ / y in 2020, which will become nearly 15,000 in 2030. For the entire Italian geothermal energy, in short, the future is looming very satisfying, with positive effects for the national economy as a whole. By 2030, in the best case scenario, you could create up to 200,000 new jobs (graduates, technicians, workers), with investments of 2 billion euro and 400 million euro for research and development.
03/12/2012
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Translated via software
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Source:
Italian version of ReteArchitetti.it