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To visit
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| Larderello and the Gheotermy |
In 1846 the Grand duke Leopoldo II named the industrial village Larderello in honour of the work carried out by De Larderel. On the fourth of July 1904 prince Ginori carried out an experiment and lit up five light bulbs with the
energy produced by a piston engine fed by geothermal steam.
The first steam generated electric power plant in the world was subsequently founded. Today, the Devil's valley landscape, where the industrial village of Larderello lies, pulses with a complex network of pipes which feed the electric power plants.
The steam which comes to the surface at atmospheric pressure of 10-15 and a temperature of 150-260° C is piped and conveyed to the turbines.
Once the steam has been exploited for the production of electricity it is conveyed from the turbines to a low level
condenser where it is cooled down. The water produced from the vapour is then injected to a depth 3000 metres rifilling the geothermal basin and in contact with the magma mass of volcanic origin, new steam is created. |
| Just a few kilometres from Pomarance lies the geothermal area of the hot steam jets and fumaroles. This subterranean energy which emerges to the surface as white columns of steam, is exploited to generate electrical power |
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| The news about the geothermic phenomena date back to antiquity. In the Tabula Itineraria Peutingeriana, a military map of the 3rd century, two important thermal baths are mentioned: the Acquas Volaternas and the Acque Popularie, and in the middle a circular lake which probably represented the boraciferous area, where a lot of boiling pools were present.The Acquas Volaternas are to be identified with the thermal complex called The Bath in the Middle age and in the Renaissance, for the beneficial effects of the waters. Any trace of the Aque Populanie had been lost till an excavation in the area of Sasso Pisano rought to light a roman and etruscan thermal complex called Bagno del Re (the king Bath), which we can easily identify with the Aque Populanie .
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