Enel Adds 20 MW of Geothermal in Italy

The plant is expected to produce 14 Gwh of electricity per year. Enel now has 742 MW of geothermal projects operating around the world. That's equal to 12 percent of its portfolio.

The area around Tuscany is a very geothermally-active region. Remarkably, Tuscany produces 10 percent of the world's geothermal electricity. And as the video below points out, Italy produces 30% more geothermal electricity than Iceland.

It's been a somewhat slow year for geothermal in the U.S. and internationally. But the Geothermal Energy Association released a report in the spring highlighting some of the activity around the world. Due to financial and equipment constraints, many of the projects outlined in the report may not get built in the timeframe suggested. But there's clearly a lot going on.

Highlights from the 70 countries developing geothermal include:

• The U.S. leads the world in geothermal electricity production with approximately 3,086 MW of installed capacity from 77 power plants.

• The Philippines now follows the U.S. as the second highest producer of geothermal power in the world, with 1,904 MW. Energy from geothermal power makes up approximately 18% of the country's electricity generation.

• Germany has more than 150 geothermal power plant projects at some stage of development, and expects to have over 280 MW on line by 2020 according to the European Commission.

• Geothermal power plants provide 26% of the electricity in El Salvador.

• Kenya hopes to be producing 490 MW of geothermal power by 2012 and as much as 4,000 MW within 20 years.

• Turkey has a goal to reach 550 MW of geothermal power on line by 2013.

• Indonesia’s National Energy Blueprint sets a goal of 9,500 MW of geothermal power production, an 800% increase.