Geothermal Energy as Sustainable Application for Greenhouse Heating in Rural Areas and Agriculture

Abstract

Geothermal energy resources are largely distributed in Europe and in the Mediterranean basin. They are utilized in electricity generation and in some direct uses in agriculture, of which the most important one is represented by the greenhouse heating. According to the nowadays EU policies on renewable energy and on environmental control, the market of geothermal energy as heat production could attract attention for agricultural applications and in the frame of the economic and social development of rural areas due to its characteristics of clean, available and friendly energy. At present, a number of financial opportunities exist in the EU programmes concerning the promotion of indigenous and local energy resources for sustainable productive applications in rural and isolated agricultural communities. The new EU objectives on the Agricultural Policy (CAP) include actions in favour of Member and non Member States, and this strongly increases the role and prospects to which geothermal energy resources could aspire in the future European energy scenario given their high existing potential in Western, Central and Eastern countries and in the Mediterranean Basin.