Visiting Larderello Geothermal Power Plant November 2024 Philip Ball. Geothermal Energy Advisors recently visited the geothermal museum at Larderello (Photo 1). Larderello, is the birthplace of geothermal derived electric power, which was first demonstrated on July 4th, 1904. Larderello is located in La Valle del Diavolo – “The Devil’s Valley”. Once called because of the spectacular lagoni, fumerole “lagoons and fumaroles” coupled with the smell of Sulphur. The town of Montecerboli is located at the head of Devil’s valley. The town gets its name from Montis Cerberi, a gabbro outcrop known as the “mountain of Cerberus” the legendary three headed dog (Photo 2) that guards the gates of the underworld (Stiles, 2024; Barbier et al. 1983). Today, the lagoons and fumeroles in the valley which made the valley dangerous and uninhabitable, have gone. 111 years of geothermal production have extinguished these, although they can be found elsewhere in the region. Photo 1: The Larderello Geothermal