New perspectives on geothermal energy usage over the past 30 years in Italy: its impact on society, the economy, and land management

The Earth's heat comes from the residual heat associated with the formation of our planet, as well as from the decay of radioactive elements in the mantle. Urban development has not considered land properties and management to benefit from geothermal sources, which provide a clean, free, widespread, and programmable renewable energy source.

Scientific and technological progress have contributed to the use of geothermal to favour the transition towards low-carbon energy sources and sustainable development, which are key factors for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. Italy, for example, was the first country in the world to exploit geothermal energy, obtaining numerous social and economic benefits, but in the last 30 years, this exploitation has stood still, while other countries are investing and have recently exceeded their predicted electricity production from renewable geothermal resources.

In the present research, the major changes in low–medium–high-enthalpy geothermal systems that have occurred in Italy in the last 30 years are analysed and discussed, and the preliminary results of a larger investigation related to the perception of geothermal energy by the Italian population are presented. The present research is based on a survey, specifically designed to understand the perception of the Italian population with respect to the different geothermal energy systems (uploaded on the Qualtrix Platform^®).

The integration of social and legislative issues is still in progress, but we can say that the use of geothermal energy is driven by a) fiscal benefit in terms of energy efficiency of people's own properties; b) the extraction of critical raw materials from medium- and high-enthalpy geothermal systems; and c) the search for natural hydrogen. From a technical point of view, a description of the progress can be provided, but the scientific community is not taking perspectives from a social and policy point of view, or the important role of urban, landscape, and natural resource management, fully into account.