“I remember playing in that field and eating pears from a big tree. The idea that all this could disappear devastates me,” says Judithe, a resident of Montenero. This small village in Tuscany, Italy, is famous for its high-quality wine and olive oil. But the area could soon become home to a new geothermal energy plant.

Tuscany already has 34 geothermal power plants, making it a European pioneer of this energy source. The regional administration has recently granted a 20-year renewal of concessions to Enel Green Power, the renewables branch of Italy’s national energy company, and three new energy facilities are planned. The one in Montenero will be operated by Gesto Energy, one of the first private operators in Italy’s geothermal market. But local citizens complain about a lack of involvement in decision-making and warn about the environmental impacts of geothermal expansion.

“The only time we saw [Gesto representatives] was when they came to meet my neighbour. They wanted to buy his land to extend the [planned] plant’s perimeter. We gathered there to use the opportunity for dialogue, but they didn’t even get out of the car,” recalls Judithe, who lives just 150 metres away from the new project’s site.

Judithe says that her neighbour, who is retired, wishes to sell his property to someone who can carry on the local agricultural traditions, but no one wants to buy it because of the planned energy plant. The government has classified the project as one of national interest, which authorises it to carry out expropriations. Local olive oil and wine producers have filed legal appeals against it.

Untapped potential

Geothermal energy is widely regarded as one of the most promising green energy sources. It is produced by tapping into the heat stored beneath the Earth’s surface. This heat comes from the Earth’s core and the decay of radioactive materials in rocks. In geothermal power plants, wells are drilled into underground reservoirs to access hot water or steam, which is then brought to the surface.

At low enthalpy (below 150 degrees Celsius), geothermal energy can be used to heat and cool homes. At high enthalpy (between 150 and 350 degrees Celsius), which requires mining concessions, it can be used to generate electricity. Different temperatures and depths correspond to different types of geothermal plants, including dry steam, flash steam, and binary cycle plants.

Many EU policy initiatives, such as the REPowerEu Plan and the EU Taxonomy Regulation, cite geothermal energy as key to the clean energy transition. Some countries, including Italy and non-EU members like Iceland and Turkey, have well-established geothermal sectors. Pniec, Italy’s National plan on Energy and Climate, sets a target of 1 GW of installed geothermal capacity by 2030. With the current capacity at about 916 megawatts, this implies a net increase of approximately 84 megawatts. The 2024 FER2 Decree (aimed at promoting renewable energy development) also includes incentives for scaling up geothermal energy.

A 2022 study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre calculated the EU’s net capacity for geothermal electricity generation to be at 877 megawatt electric in 2021, with growth “well below the global trend”. According to the study, “the outlook is more promising” for geothermal heat production, with growth led by France, the Netherlands, and Poland.

The potential of geothermal energy remains largely unexploited. In 2021, geothermal sources accounted for only 2.8 per cent of the energy produced with renewable sources in the EU. To address this, in December 2024 the European Council asked the Commission to develop a strategy for decarbonising heating and cooling and a European action plan in the geothermal field. Csaba Lantos, Hungary’s Minister of Energy, stated at the time that “Geothermal energy is a long-term renewable source that is always available, as it does not depend on weather phenomena and can ensure the permanent production of electricity and heat.”

Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo, an expert from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), sees things differently: “Geothermal energy is not like other renewables – the sun is infinite, it renews itself. Geothermal energy is like oil. After you exploit a reservoir, you must drill new wells,” he says. According to data cited by Enel, the lifespan of a geothermal plant is about 30 years – an estimate supported by several studies. Once a power plant closes, the subsurface remains altered for decades.

Air and water conflicts

Travelling through the rolling Tuscan hills – the setting of countless poems, films, and tourist excursions – one can spot white clouds in the distance popping from Mount Amiata. They are the byproduct of geothermal power plants.

In the south-east of the region, citizen initiatives like the No Gesi network (“No Speculative and Polluting Geothermal Electricity”) try to inform the wider public about the environmental impacts of these plants. “We are not against geothermal energy; we are against those who use heat in ways that prove polluting and harmful,” explains Cinzia Mammolotti, a town councillor in Abbadia San Salvatore and a member of No Gesi, which brings together various locally active committees between Siena and Grosseto.

While the EU considers geothermal energy as a renewable source, individual geothermal plants must meet specific criteria – in terms of emissions and impact on the land, for example – in order to be identified as “green”.

Approaching one of the flash-type plants – the “traditional” and most common technology, which brings hot fluids from underground and turns some of them into steam – the eye is drawn to the constant flow of white vapour, accompanied by a constant hum.

According to data published in 2017 by Tuscany’s regional agency for environmental protection (ARPAT), the average annual emissions from geothermal electric plants in the Amiata area amounted to 467,238 tonnes of CO2, 9.9 tonnes of methane, and 161.4 kg of mercury (1 gram of mercury renders 1,000 cubic metres of water non-potable). These are striking figures, especially considering that oil-fired power plants emit less on average (700 tonnes of CO2 per GWh, compared to 852 for geothermal).

Flash-type plants also emit arsenic, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia. The latter, once released into the atmosphere, transforms into inhalable particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10). “The impact we measured exceeds 10 micrograms per cubic meter of particulate matter,” explains Andrea Borgia, a geologist who used to work on the region’s geothermal technical committee and for the Ministry of the Environment. A 2005 Clean Air For Europe (CAFE) report calculated damages amounting to nearly 5 million euros due to ammonia alone.

In the 1980s, when geothermal plants had already been active for 20 years, the Italian National Institute of Health found that the population of Amiata had lower mortality and hospitalisation rates compared to the national average. In recent years, however, studies have found a positive association between exposure to hydrogen sulfide from geothermoelectric power plants and respiratory diseases in the Mount Amiata area. Another study found that Enel workers exhibited levels of heavy metals in their biological samples (such as urine) up to twice the average.

Enel, contacted for this investigation, explained that the company installed air filters that “allow emissions to fall within the legal limits”. However, in 2023, only eight inspections were conducted across six plants, and only three pollutants were monitored.  Experts also voiced concerns that Enel is given 15 days’ notice before ARPAT inspections, and that filters are sometimes turned off during certain operational phases. Despite conducting limited checks, the environmental agency found that sulphur dioxide levels exceeded legal limits by 67 per cent. (Enel argued that further monitoring highlighted no exceedance.) Independent monitoring by a citizens’ initiative seems to confirm the worries of local residents.

Along Tuscan streams like the Rigo, in the Siena province, geologist Andrea Borgia observes changes that most people wouldn’t notice. Oak trees, a regional symbol, have nearly disappeared; unlike pines and olive trees, they don’t manage to survive when the air gets more acidic.

Mount Amiata, a former volcano located between Siena and Grosseto, is home to one of the most important aquifers in central Italy. Its name likely derives from the Latin “ad meata”, “at the springs”. “The bridges are now at a different elevation compared to when they were built,” Borgia explains. Since the geothermal field was developed in the 1960s, the aquifer level has dropped by 200 to 300 metres. “That’s how bridges collapse – they’re failing due to the lowering of the aquifer, and numerous streams have dried up.”

The Vivo d’Orcia spring, which supplies water to Siena, has halved its output from 100 to 50 litres per second, says Borgia. “The opening of the geothermal plant Bagnore 4 in 2014 reduced one of the Bagni di San Filippo thermal springs to zero flow,” the expert adds. Research by Borgia and other experts confirms this trend, also showing that when a geothermal field shuts down, water flow returns to normal levels. Enel, contacted on the matter, stated that “there is no correlation between the superficial aquifers and geothermal reservoirs.”

Closed loops

To address the issue of atmospheric emissions, new technologies have been developed. One is the binary cycle, where geothermal fluid is extracted and then re-injected at another point to create a closed-loop system, preventing external emissions.

In 2019, Sorgenia – a private energy company – announced the construction of a binary cycle power plant in Val di Paglia, only 5 km away from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Val D’Orcia. The same year, Tuscany’s environmental and energy plan stated that the “equilibrium point between resource exploitation with current technologies and the socio-economic character of the territory” was reached at 100 megawatt installed capacity. Today, the installed capacity stands at 121 megawatts. With the new concessions, it could reach 185 megawatts. 

While the binary cycle can reduce groundwater depletion and air emissions, it can also increase seismicity by altering the subsurface through both fluid extraction and reinjection. According to geophysics expert Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo, Sorgenia’s geothermal project could generate earthquakes with a magnitude of up to almost six.

“Imagine a sponge from which I extract fluid. Its properties change, it dries out and contracts.” With the binary cycle, “If I extract 1000 tonnes from one point and then, hundreds of metres away, I reinject the cooled fluid, it’s a big assumption that this will balance out the extraction. It’s empty down there, it’s fractured rock, so the fluid goes where it wants,” explains Mastrolorenzo. Enel recorded earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 0 to 4 between 1982 and 2009. The master plan for Sorgenia’s project in Val di Paglia includes planned microseismicity.

Local residents – often living in medieval houses in small villages – believe that energy companies promote a narrative of “acceptable damage”. “Earthquakes are seen as something we can tolerate, because we gain energy in return,” comments Cinzia Mammolotti of the No Gesi committee. To oppose the project, the network raised 27,000 euros in a month and a half and filed four lawsuits with the regional administrative court (TAR). According to regional regulations, Sorgenia’s project would have required a public consultation. However, this never took place, partly due to Covid-19 restrictions. “You can’t deny civil debate – that’s when something changed,” says Nicoletta Innocenzi, an entrepreneur.

After consistent pressure, in 2020 Sorgenia organised an informational meeting to address citizens’ concerns. The event lasted over three hours, yet citizens complained that only the company’s representatives spoke. One member of the audience commented: “Letting us speak only at the very end with just one-minute questions each, without allowing us to present our own studies, makes the local population look unprepared. This is not real dialogue.”

In April 2025, however, Sorgenia announced that it was withdrawing from the project, citing economic reasons. Local committees believe they have contributed to delaying construction. “I knew it would end up being one of those abandoned structures in the middle of nowhere,” says Edoardo Meloni, a member of a local association that is part of the Ecosistema Val d’Orcia network, created to oppose the plant.

According to the Ecosistema, “When you oppose a project that promises energy, jobs, and compensatory works like schools and parks, you are perceived as someone who says ‘no’ to everything. But we have many positive proposals.” These entail expanding the UNESCO buffer zone, establishing a permanent territorial observatory with a scientific technical committee, and opening an archaeological park surrounding medieval ruins. The objective is protecting the hills from future energy projects.

The renewal of Enel’s concessions has also sparked opposition. “The region did not even hold a public bidding process, open to all. Enel has a monopoly in deciding what to do with the natural resources under our homes,” says a resident.

Resistance to the Val di Paglia project has led to an unprecedented unification of citizen groups and committees from both sides of Mount Amiata. Now, that opposition is concentrating its efforts against new projects like the one in Montenero.

Romania: A geothermal role model?

While in Italy citizens struggle to accept what many refer to as “the sale of our land” for geothermal projects, in Romania attitudes towards this energy source are more positive. Although Bucharest still hasn’t developed a national plan, geothermal projects in the western part of the country have brought tangible benefits to local communities, and now provide affordable heating for homes, businesses, and public institutions.

Beiuș, a small town in Bihor County, now heats 70 per cent of its homes with geothermal water. Residents transitioned from expensive and polluting wood-based heating to geothermal starting from the 1990s. This process has been continuously supported by all mayors, regardless of their political affiliation.

Until the 1990s, Beiuș residents connected to the centralised heating system had hot water for only three hours a week. The system at the time was old and outdated, served by three oil-fired boilers. Drilling for water at low enthalpy (75-78 degrees Celsius) started in 1995. Today, Beiuș residents pay the lowest heating price in the country, without the need for public subsidies (unlike in many Romanian cities heated with fossil fuels). For example, in the city of Arad, a two-hour drive from Beiuș, citizens pay for energy almost twice as much, but real production costs are about five times higher than in Beiuș. Wood is also significantly more costly than geothermal.

Valeriu Roman, a resident of Beiuș, says: “A cubic meter of wood costs around 500 lei (100 euros), and I don’t think two cubic metres would be enough for me in a month. Now I pay less than 500 lei for a whole month of heating. I save a lot.” A few houses down, Viorel Ianc says that although the system was imperfect at first, the city administration improved it, and “for two or three years now they have done things properly and normally.”

Oradea, the capital of Bihor county, is also investing in geothermal. Heat produced with geothermal water currently stands at 15 per cent of the total, heating 15,000 flats, mostly in the Nufărul 1 neighbourhood. Although the costs for introducing geothermal heating were high, the municipality estimates that the local budget can recover its investment within six years. The city’s goal is to produce enough geothermal energy to cover 50 per cent of its needs.

Residents and local administrators in Beiuș and Oradea agree that the transition to geothermal energy is not without obstacles, considering that neither legislation nor investment sources are easy to navigate, and national strategies are missing. “The geothermal energy context is still too little addressed by policies and laws because this source is exploited in only a few areas of Romania,” says Zamfir Todor, an advisor of the mayor in Beiuș. Todor also notes that there are no dedicated funding programmes for geothermal.

In June 2025, Romania’s Ministry of Development launched a funding programme that includes a section dedicated to geothermal energy production. However, the value of eligible projects can be at most 8 million euros – less than half of what a city like Beiuș needs to expand its network and replace old technology and worn-out pipes.

In spite of these difficulties, the administration of Oradea believes that geothermal energy can contribute to energy security, lower heating bills, and reduced CO2 emissions. In Beiuș, the annual emission reductions achieved thanks to geothermal energy are equivalent to taking approximately 11,000 cars off the road.

While Italy and Romania are both among the European countries with the highest geothermal energy potential, the reality on the ground differs widely. Italy’s large-scale, state-driven geothermal exploitation for electricity production continues to raise environmental concerns and ignite local opposition. In Romania, municipal initiatives for geothermal heating have been met more favourably by citizens, who were able to reap the benefits of the transition. As Europe scales up investment in geothermal energy to meet renewable targets, these two countries offer useful lessons.

This investigation was made possible thanks to the support of Journalismfund.