A VLF Survey in Vinadio Geothermal Area

Giuliano Cappato – A VLF survey in Vinadio geothermal area - 11 - III.a INTRODUCTION With the increase in world population, industrialization and improvement in the standard of living, there has been a continuously increasing energy consumption. Obviously, a very sincere effort needs to be made both to limit this energy consumption and to find new sources of energy to maintain present standards of living in the developed countries and improve those of the developing countries. The existing energy supply and demand situation is such that very soon all the energy that could be obtained from all possible available sources would need to be harnessed. To improve the energy situation, efforts need to be made in the following three directions: - utilization of new methods for recovery, power generation and distribution; - reduction of using non-renewable sources of energy; - development and utilization of other energy sources and techniques. In this global framework, geothermal energy promises to play a fundamental role in supplying electric power, industrial process heating and heat for buildings. In general, geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly: Earth’s heat is one of the most powerful sources of energy. To appreciate the potential of geothermal energy, it has been calculated that, through the cooling of our planet by 1°C, enough heat would be released to keep the whole world supplied with all its present-day electrical power needs for some forty million years. This vast source of energy is now beginning to be considered as a potential future supplier of global energy requirements. During last years, in order to detect new geothermal fields, many geophysical surveying methods have been much utilized, because they have no effective costs and large areas