Gesto Italia

With the vision to become the first private operator in the Italian geothermal market, Gesto decided – in 2009 – to explore geothermal resources resulting from deregulation and legislative changes put in place to promote private sector investment in the geothermal sector.

For that Gesto creates Gesto Italia which was the first operator to apply for a concession in the liberalized Italian geothermal sector, which prior to the legislative changes, was exclusively developed by Enel, the state-owned utility.

In order to enhance the development of its geothermal project, in the end of 2018, Gesto transferred the control of Gesto Italia to a large Italian Industrial Company.

As one of the largest geothermal concession owners in Italy, Gesto Italia owns three geothermal concession areas totaling 168 km2 (41,513 acres), in the Tuscany region, awarded in 2011 and 2012 after securing environmental impact approvals for prospecting. Concessions have been recently extended to 2018/2019. One concession, “Mazzola” is in the vicinity of the Larderello- Travale geothermal field. The remaining concessions, Montenero and Cinigiano, are in the vicinity of the Monte Amiata geothermal field.

The Company has a seasoned management team, including senior level geothermal technicians with development and operational experience in Italy, which has enabled Gesto Italia to specialize in the evaluation of renewable resources, the identification and assessment of renewable projects and in energy planning and strategy development. Gesto Italia has progressed in the prospecting of the concession, identified potential heat resources and has a detailed plan to develop the concessions with small (7 MW gross) geothermal power plants.

Italy is a leading producer of electricity from renewable energy sources, including geothermal, hydro, wind, solar and bioenergy. Growth of the renewable sector is driven by Italy’s supportive energy policy and renewable incentive schemes, implemented to enable the country to comply with the dual national objectives of meeting the binding European Union renewable energy targets and reducing dependency on imported power and natural gas.

To encourage independent geothermal development, Italian geothermal concessions have an attractive FiT that is paid directly by Gestore Servizi Energetici (“GSE”), the Italian public energy manager. The FiT structure is defined for new geothermal projects in legislation with the most recent having been approved in June 2016. Under the 2016 legislation, all projects up to 5 MW can apply to the registry and secure access to a fixed tariff for 25 years when they start operation – which should occur within 51 months from tariff award (before end of 2020 for Montenero). These projects – which Gesto is targeting for its 35 MWe portfolio – benefit under the 2016 legislation from a high Feed in Tariff.