All-Italian innovation. Enel Green Power has completed the first plant in the world that integrates biomass and geothermal energy.
The work is located in Castelnuovo Val di Cecina, in Tuscany, and uses biomass to superheat geothermal steam with the aim of increasing energy efficiency and the electricity production of the geothermal cycle.
The existing geothermal plant was flanked by a power plant fueled by virgin biomass of "short supply chain", of forest origin produced 70 km as the crow flies from the location of the plant. Precisely by means of the biomass, the incoming steam passes from a temperature of 150-160° to one of 370 – 380°, so that due to the greater enthalpy of the steam and the efficiency of the cycle linked to the lower humidity in the production phase, it increases the net power for electricity generation.
An investment that cost Enel Green Power more than 15 million euro. An amount intended to finance a technological innovation a environmental impact close to zero, which appears to be new scenarios worldwide.
The power of 5 MW increases the producibility of over 30 GWh/year and overall, the operation allows a further saving of CO2 which exceeds 13.000 tons per year. But the value of the plant is also high from an employment point of view given that the direct and indirect management for finding the resource in the short supply chain process has between 35 and 40 employees.
"The integration of different technologies represents an important step forward for the future of renewables" - highlights the CEO of Enel Green Power Francesco Venturini – “This plant, like that of Stillwater in the United States, which is capable of combining the continuous generation capacity of medium-enthalpy geothermal energy with a binary cycle and solar thermodynamics, that of Fontes Solar in Brazil, capable of integrating wind to photovoltaics, as well as the use of a stand-alone photovoltaic system to reduce consumption at the Apiacas hydroelectric construction site – explains the CEO – make it possible to optimize results and represent a replicable model for opening up new energy, economic and employment development scenarios for the area".
