When Sue Kennington, an artist, bought a "complete ruin", with no roof, rooms, water or electricity, near the hilltop town of Montepulciano, little did she know that, shortly afterwards, she would meet a geothermal guru - her future husband - who would help her to turn it into one of the most stylish, self-sufficient farmhouses in Tuscany.
Poggio Boldrini is beautiful in all the ways you expect from an impeccably restored 15th-century farmhouse. It has the big, bright living room with coved ceilings, the golden poplar-beamed music room and library, the five bedrooms with antique waxed terracotta floors. Outside, in the 2.5-hectare garden, there is a one-bedroom guest cottage, an artist's studio and a pool overlooking groves of figs, plums and olives.
So far, so Tuscan. Look beneath the rustic finishes, however, and a high-tech world opens up. Take the £18,000 ground (or geothermal) energy system, which uses heat stored in the earth to heat the house, or the £20,000 worth of photovoltaic panels. Kennington, 53, estimates that the installations have reduced the running costs of Poggio Boldrini from £14,000 a year to almost zero.
"Sue started this gargantuan process 10 years ago, before she met me, then I got roped in," says her husband, Ryan Law, 37, the managing director of Geothermal Engineering, which is developing the UK's first commercial geothermal energy plant, in Cornwall. "The geothermal system was simple, although it meant burying 2km of plastic tubing two metres beneath our back field, so it looked like first world war trenches that summer," he recalls. "The solar panels, though, were a bureaucratic disaster. They were easy to buy and install in an unobtrusive spot in the garden, but we had to wait for a year before all the paperwork was done and we were allowed to connect them to the grid."
The couple's tenacity has paid off. The panels produce 3.3kW of electricity, with any power not used by the house sold back to the grid for three times the usual market price - a rate guaranteed for 20 years. The ground energy system, which provides underfloor heating, is similarly successful: for every unit of energy they supply to its heat pump, they get four units out. "We've slashed our bills to nothing," Law says. "When your property's running costs are high, as they are in farmhouses like this, which usually run on expensive liquid gas, you see a fast payback."
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There is one other device that Law has installed: some sophisticated tubing in their well, 250 metres deep, to give them their own water supply. "Part of the ethos behind the house is to almost make it off-grid," he says.
They are not alone, with more buyers in Tuscany turning their retreats into self-sufficient fortresses. "The super-rich, in particular, who arrive here in their private jets, are tired of city life and want to get away from it all, so they are buying ruins to turn into isolated paradises," Law says. "There's a bunker mentality of wanting to be self-sufficient. They don't trust the infrastructure any more, and they don't trust water or electricity suppliers."
Now the couple are leaving; Law's Cornish project requires him to spend more time in Britain. This means the next owner - who will have to stump up £2.32m - has the chance to live in a self-sufficient idyll where all the hard work has been done.
In neighbouring Umbria, another Briton has been pioneering underground green technology. Charles Wightman, 58, a former property developer who now owns Bella Figura, a luxury lighting company, has installed the first geothermal heat pump in the region at his new seven-bedroom villa in Todi, near Perugia.
The three-storey house, on a ridge above the Tiber, also has double walls, an extra-thick floor, 12 large solar panels and double-glazed solid-oak windows with oak shutters. This has cut heating bills by 75%. "We also have the benefit of a solar-heated pool that we can use from April to October," says Wightman, who is selling up for £2.46m to move nearer his suppliers in northern Italy.
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There are two snags, he warns: the system requires supervision, which can be a problem when the house is unoccupied; and it can be tricky to balance the system so the solar panels and geothermal pump know what to heat when - whether to prioritise the water, the underfloor heating or the pool - without exploding. It was also fortuitous that Wightman speaks German, as that's the only language the instructions for the geothermal pump came in.
Like Britain, Italy is becoming ever more progressive in its green thinking. "The authorities are happier now for people to install wind turbines, and the national grid is happy for people to put power into it from solar generation," says Bill Thompson, chairman of Knight Frank estate agency's Italian network of agents, who can advise buyers on sourcing alternative energy. He cautions, however, that it is still early days. "It may take you 10 years to recoup your money, and there's always the risk that the technology will be out of date by the time you do. But if you install a good system, the next owner will appreciate it."
For those who fancy the green life without red tape, the 200-acre Cignella Estate, on a secluded hilltop 20 miles from Siena, is a group of 18 animal sheds that have been rebuilt as two- to four-bedroom homes with handmade terracotta tiles, seasoned oak beams and top-notch kitchens - all powered by an energy-efficient system that includes underfloor central heating. The 14 properties still for sale start at £286,000.
"As we are in the middle of nowhere and we needed to replace the old foundations anyway, getting permission and installing the geothermic system was easy," says John Frederick, the estate's chief executive. "We have spent £460,000 installing the geothermal system, which is twice what normal electricity would have cost, but running costs will be about 50% lower, and it's a big selling point for the kind of buyer who is attracted to Tuscany."
Poggio Boldrini is for sale with Knight Frank; 020 7629 8171, knightfrank.co.uk/international. The Todi villa and Cignella Estate properties are for sale with Cluttons Italy; 00 39 075 845 0100, cluttonsitaly.com
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How to do eco-technology in Europe
Installing high-tech energy-efficient features abroad may not be as straightforward as in the UK, so do your research carefully, translate all the paperwork into English and seek local advice.
Italy: Italian tax residents (those who spend over half the year there) can get government grants of up to 20% off the cost of installing solar panels and a 50% tax rebate on geothermal systems. Talk to suppliers of green systems, who can negotiate a bank loan on your behalf to finance the installation of renewable energy sources.
France: A system of tax credits is in place for owners who build "green" homes. The Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie (Ademe) can fund up to 50% of the cost and fitting of eco-friendly technology, but there may be conditions attached. For more details, visit ademe.fr.
Spain: The government is keen to increase solar energy use and has set aside 1 billion in direct subsidies to assist the upgrading of older, energy-inefficient buildings. It has also pledged to spend 2 billion annually on helping homeowners to make their properties up to 60% more energy-efficient.
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Building a home from scratch? Consult the local building regulations and an architect. In Spain, all new homes must have solar thermal technology to heat water. In France, 40% of the windows in a development must be south-facing, for passive solar gain.
UNDERGROUND SUCCESS
For more innovative European homes, go to timesonline.co.uk/ overseasproperty