1 EGC 2013 Assessment of social acceptance of geothermal energy exploitation in southern Italy Anna Pellizzone 1,3 , Agnes Allansdottir 2 , Roberto De Franco 3 , Giovanni Muttoni 1 , Adele Manzella 4 1 Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “Ardito Desio”, via Mangiagalli 34, Milano, Italy 2 Fondazione Toscana Life Sciences, Via Fiorentina 1, 53100, Siena, Italy 3 CNR- Istituto per la Dinamica dei Processi Ambientali, via Mario Bianco 9, 20100 Milano, Italy 4 CNR - Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, via G. Moruzzi 1, Località San Cataldo, 56124 Pisa, Italy anna.pellizzone@unimi.it, a.allansdottir@toscanalifesciences.org, roberto.defranco@idpa.cnr.it, giovanni.muttoni1@unimi.it, vigor@igg.cnr.it Keywords: social acceptability, geothermal energy, Termini Imerese, VIGOR Project, South Italy ABSTRACT This paper presents the preliminary results of a cultural and social acceptability assessment of geothermal energy exploitation in southern Italy; this research was carried out in the frame of the national project „VIGOR‟ led by CNR (Italian National Research Council) and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development to investigate the potentials of geothermal energy exploitation in southern Italy. The research was designed as a case study and carried out in the province of Palermo, Sicily, where CNR has conducted geological prospecting in order to establish the geothermal potential in the area of Termini Imerese. The area of Termini Imerese was selected as case study as a step towards designing approaches for “upstream” public engagement, i.e. engaging citizens in the early steps of eventual technology developments that impact their daily life. The case study has two basic components: (1) Focus Groups were conducted with four different groups of citizens and stakeholders from the selected area; (2) a Survey with a sample of 400 citizens calibrated by gender, age, education and residence was carried out in the province of Palermo. Energy issues are clearly perceived as very politicized at the moment and major concerns rise from lack of confidence towards politicians, energy companies and institutions in general, to adequately manage innovation processes in the energy sector in general. Our tentative conclusions are that there is considerable openness and interest in geothermal power but there is still quite a lot of work on societal dialogue to be done to accommodate public concerns, reduce uncertainties and set the eventual development of geothermal energy exploitation on a socially and culturally sustainable path. 1. INTRODUCTION Socio-political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being of primary importance for the successful implementation of renewable energy policies (hereafter renewables) policies (Pellizzoni, 2000, 2010). However, until recently, systematic studies of social and community acceptance of technologies that exploit geothermal energy have been somewhat neglected perhaps because preliminary indications of high levels of public acceptance have been interpreted as unwavering support for the future (Dowd, 2010, Wüstenhagen, 2007). In Europe, the results of Eurobarometer surveys on the evolution of the public opinion on science and technology matters indicate that the public strongly encourages the exploitation of renewable energies, particularly solar and wind. Compared to traditional fossil fuels and nuclear power, the European citizens regard low emission technologies with considerable optimism and confidence, however and this point needs to be underlined, they also expect to have a voice in decision making, particularly when it directly affects their communities (Gaskell, et al 2010, Gaskell et. al. 2011). The results of the 2010 Eurobarometer survey on energy technologies show that a large majority of Europeans support the use of solar (87%) and wind (84%) as sources of energy, while nuclear energy is as much opposed (39%) as it is encouraged (39%). In recent years, there has been a sustained growth of criticism in the field of science and technology studies