The European Geoflexheat project brings Mount Amiata
to the center of geothermal innovation
EU partners stopped in Santa Fiora (GR)
Jouhara: “Tuscany is a truly incredible place, and all necessary measures are taken at geothermal sites to ensure environmental protection.”
Geothermal technologies were first developed in Tuscany, over two centuries ago, and even today, this region remains at the center of European innovation policies to ensure that geothermal energy can finally demonstrate its full potential. As emphasized by the International Energy Agency (IEA), this renewable source would be “more than sufficient to meet the entire electricity and heat demand in Africa, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States.”
To get closer to this goal, however, it is necessary to overcome technological and social acceptability obstacles, both of which are at the heart of the European Geoflexheat project. Funded in 2024 with nearly €3 million from the EU Horizon Europe program, it will run until 2027, bringing together the efforts of 12 European partners in a consortium comprising three Italian entities: an entirely public entity, the Consortium for the Development of Geothermal Areas (CoSviG), Spike Renewables, and Rete Geotermica (with Steam playing a leading role).
At the heart of the project is the development of a heat pipe heat exchanger combined with an advanced scaling reactor to improve heat recovery fromgeothermal brine while also providing valuable mineral byproducts. Added to this are a new high-temperature heat pump that provides high-temperature heat at low costs—essential for a wide range of industrial and other processes—and the creation of a Social Acceptance Guide to facilitate political influence and community engagement.
As the project nears its halfway point, the European partners recently stopped on Mount Amiata—in the geothermal municipality of Santa Fiora (GR), experiencing firsthand the operation of the Bagnore geothermal power plants operated by Enel Green Power and the local district heating network managed by Amiata Energia. This is where one of the two Geoflexheat study sites is being developed.
“Our goal is to unlock the potential of geothermal energy across Europe using cutting-edge technologies” explains Hussam Jouhara, professor at Brunel University London and leader of the Geoflexheat Consortium. “At present, geothermal energy has several limitations, one of which is the problem of mineral deposits forming in geothermal pipes, which prevents the extraction of more than a certain amount of heat. We are addressing this challenge in the demonstration project on Mount Amiata.”
Specifically, the technology being developed downstream from the Bagnore 3 and 4 power plants aims to extract silica from geothermal brines to achieve a dual goal: first, to protect the pipes by limiting mineral encrustations within them—thus increasing both electricity and heat production without necessarily drilling new wells, thus reducing operating costs—and, at the same time, to obtain a raw material with attractive market potential (from uses in glass and cement factories to animal bedding and lithium production).
“Our second demonstration case,” adds Jouhara “, is in Iceland, where we have a low-temperature geothermal heat source (85°C) without any real-world applications; the project aims to use high-temperature heat pump technology to raise it to a usable level (120°C) by local communities, both for space heating and for industrial uses.“
“My hope, and that of the entire Consortium,” Jouhara concludes, “is that by the end of the project, the Geoflexheat system can be used throughout Europe and beyond, making the extraordinary renewable energy source that is geothermal energy available to everyone, as it is in Tuscany. This is a beautiful, truly incredible place, and from the sites we visited on Mount Amiata, it’s clear that all necessary measures are being taken to ensure environmental protection.
The concerns that are a problem at various European geothermal sites are effectively addressed here: cutting-edge technologies are employed, in step with industry innovation. And that’s why we chose Mount Amiata as a demonstration site for our project.“
Article written by Luca Aterini,
www.greenreport.it