Italy:

Offshore Geothermal Power Project in Italy Potential Model For Similar Projects

(Source: ThinkGeoenergy)

An offshore geothermal power project by Eurobuilding in Italy is looking at drilling into one of the largest (underwater) volcanoes in the world, close to Sicily and Calabria. A potential EUR 2 billion project.

Location of the Marsili Project
(Courtesy gotpowered.com)

The world’s largest volcano can be found in Italy’s territorial waters off the coast of Sicily and Calabria. The Volcano Marsili is about 3,000 meters high, peaking at 800 meters below sea level about 80 km off the Aeolian Islands. With 50 km in diameter it is currently not active, but not completely extinguished and could see an eruption at any point in time.

Prof. Patrizio Signanini from the University of Chieti, had the idea to utilize the energy found in the volcano to produce geothermal power. Water that is close to overheating above the magma is expected to be over 300 ° C in temperature, and Professor Signanini imagined that if one could dig a tube capture to go to fetch that heat for operating steam turbines, an electricity generation capacity of 200 MW should be possible. Cold water would be reinserted in the oceanic crust using a borehole.