From the heat of the Earth to the energy of rivers: sustainable tourism in Italy, Spain and Chile

Tourism can also be sustainable. Indeed, sustainability is a responsible approach to travel that aims to protect the environment, preserve local cultures and support communities. With the widespread presence of our power plants, we promote sustainable tourism by collaborating with local communities, creating shared value and a positive economic impact. Here, then, are three suggested destinations in Italy, Spain and Chile that also involve our renewable power plants. Italy: walking or cycling in the Devil's Valley Larderello is located in an area known as the Devil's Valley (la Valle del Diavolo) in Tuscany: the name comes from the intense heat that the Earth gives off due to magma rising from a depth of 5-10 km to the surface. The first person to realize the potential benefits of this phenomenon was the engineer François Jacques Larderel, who developed a technique to harness the heat for industrial purposes by extracting boric acid from geothermal steam in 1818. Today Larderello doesn’t only produce renewable energy (through its geothermal power plants), but also culture. This is thanks to a sustainable tourism route which can also be followed by bike. It includes the Biancane Park, where geothermal fluids reach the surface, giving rise to such natural phenomena as “soffioni” (fumaroles), “mofette” and “putizze” (cracks in the ground). Then there’s the Sasso Pisano Fumarole Park, with its spectacular natural fumaroles, lagoons and geysers. There’s also the boraciferous soffioni at San Federigo, the Geothermal Museum at Larderello, as well as a step-by-step tour around our plants that enables visitors to understand geothermal energy. Finally, there’s no shortage of places where visitors can take a break that are powered by the steam from our nearby geothermal power plant. Examples include the Vapori di Birra (“Beer Vapors”) brewery, which produces no less than eight different types of beer (all with names that are dedicated in some way to geothermal energy), and the Padre Paterno (“Paternal Father”) dairy in Monterotondo Marittimo, where the milk and cheese are also produced by using geothermal steam. Spain: the park in the Wind Ecotourism Guide Today Galicia is the third largest region in Spain in terms of wind energy production, and Paradela, a small municipality not far from Lugo, through which the famous "Camino de Santiago" pathway passes, has become a local symbol of sustainable tourism. The construction of a wind farm by Enel Green Power España in this location has created new opportunities for the area, thanks to the coexistence of landscape, wind, livestock and agricultural crops. The plant's location has been included in the first Wind Ecotourism Guide, which has been published in Spain. In Paradela, the "Ruta do Loio" was created, stretching 16 kilometers alongside the Miño River, through ancient trees, waterfalls, mills, bridges and the wind farm, and it has become a local tourist attraction. And it is precisely the presence of the wind farm that has made access to the area easier, ensuring tourism, while at the same time producing clean, renewable energy for 42,000 households. Chile: the ethnotourist park In Chile, specifically in Pilmaiquén in the Los Lagos region, our power plants play a key role in sustainable tourism. It’s also the location of an ethnotourism project: for several years now, the Mapu Pilmaiquén indigenous community has been using the land and some disused buildings around the hydroelectric plant, which was built in the 1940s, to introduce their ancestral culture to thousands of visitors every year. Ethnotourism, or ethnic tourism, is a journey into the culture of particular communities. In this way, explorers seek to learn firsthand about the customs, lifestyle, history and even gastronomy of an ethnic group.

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From the heat of the Earth to the energy of rivers: sustainable tourism in Italy, Spain and Chile

From the heat of the Earth to the energy of rivers: sustainable tourism in Italy, Spain and Chile