Enel Green Power to supplement existing plant with biomass

Enel Green Power has started building the Cornia 2 geothermal power plant in the town of Castelnuovo Val di Cecina, in Tuscany. This will be the first plant in the world to use biomass to heat geothermal steam in order to increase the energy efficiency and electricity output of the geothermal cycle.

The existing geothermal plant will be supplemented by a 5MW plant powered with locally sourced virgin forest biomass produced within a radius of 70 km from the plant.

The addition of biomass means the steam entering the plant will be heated to raise the initial temperature, thereby increasing net capacity for power generation.

This additional 5MW of capacity from the biomass will be added to the existing 13MW geothermal plant. The geothermal plant's annual power output will be boosted by approximately 37GWh. Enel Green Power is investing more than €15 million in the project, with construction due to be completed by the first half of 2015.

Overall, the biomass project will reduce CO2 ¬emissions by 17,000 tonnes per year.