Geothermal district heating coming to Radicondoli in Tuscany Italy

As reported locally, everything is ready for the start of geothermal district heating in Radicondoli in Tuscany/ Italy with official start planned for October 15, 2019.

After a long period of planning and construction work on October 15th, the district heating service powered by geothermal energy will be active in the area: the municipal administration announcedt that it has the material ownership of the tested plant, and can now put it into operation via the designated management entity Ges (Geo energy service, ed ), so the Facebook post by the municipality.

“It’s a great result – said the deputy mayor of Radicondoli, Luca Fashion – This year the citizens can enjoy the benefits of renewable energy such as geothermal energy, warming producing significantly less CO2 : everyone will tie both residential users and commercial activities» , thus also opening up new opportunities for economic development in the area.

It is the completion of a journey that began with the first projects exactly ten years ago, and that together with district heating has led to the possibility of modernizing “squares, secondary, tertiary and other routes, based on a project approved by the Superintendency; for a town of a thousand inhabitants I would say that it is a gigantic work, which required a good dose of tenacity and patience “, as the former mayor of Radicondoli and today president of the Consortium for the development of the geothermal areas (CoSviG), Emiliano Bravi, who followed the development of the infrastructure over two administrative mandates: “The district heating project of Radicondoli and Belforte started in 2009 during my first mandate in the Municipality, and has been fully funded through the royalties provided for by the 2008 General Geothermal Agreement; thanks to the goodness of the type of investment, we were able to receive about EUR 800k from the Por 2007-2013 tender from the Tuscany Region. So no mortgages, no debt for the City.”

The result is the realization of a system capable of bringing both environmental benefits to the territory and economic savings for users: “Everything starts from geothermal energy. Residual steam is also used for district heating, recovering what could not (or only in part) be used for the production of electricity, so the advantage for the environment is double. And in economic terms, the technicians estimate that for the municipality of Radicondoli district heating is almost three times cheaper for each calorie produced than for example the LPG. Every year, based on the plant’s profit and loss account, the rates for residents will be established, this is certainly a convenient opportunity “.

To understand how to access it, citizens have access to the Energy office of the Municipality , able to provide all the information on the process to be performed for connection and activation of the service; the next step will then be with the Ges manager, able to provide all the details relating to the type of interventions to be done and the practices to be concluded.

“All the utilities of the center of the Municipality are potentially served, and as soon as all the works in the project are finished there is district heating in the houses of Via Guido Rossa and in the village of Belforte – concludes the deputy mayor – That of the second lot is a project that has a few years, the first step will therefore be to go back to analyzing it in depth also in light of the experience gained through the work completed in August for the realization of the first batch of district heating, in order to better understand the extent of the works with the related costs, and if further improvements or subservices can be made to relaunch the village of Belforte, which represents a stupendous pearl of our territory “.