Geothermal energy utilisation in The Netherlands has been experiencing a tremendous growth in recent years, mainly due to the development of policy instruments that tackled barriers such as geological uncertainty and the difficulty in ensuring adequate financing.
Registration for the European Geothermal Congress 2019 is now open: take advantage of the Early Bird!
Brussels, May 2019 - The Clean Energy Package sets a renewable energy target of at least 32% by 2030. For investors, this target is the minimum to keep momentum going in the fast-growing sector that is the renewable energy industry. Meeting this target is necessary for Europe to reap the economic benefits resulting from a clean and efficient energy system by 2050. This will strengthen European competitiveness at the global level boosting domestic jobs and growth.
For the EU to be world leader in renewables and leading force on climate action, European and national policies must help increasing renewable energy shares in the final energy demand: in electricity, heating & cooling and transport. This is of utmost importance to decarbonize the EU economy. A higher share of renewable energy in all final energy uses will create more jobs, push technological innovation, boost infrastructure development at the local, regional and national levels.
The recently adopted Clean Energy Package contains concrete provisions to ensure the 2030 decarbonisation objectives are collectively met. Now the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) submitted by the EU Members States are the key instrument to turn the provisions of the Package into reality. These Plans need to outline the renewable energy deployments over the next decade, being consistent with the EU-wide 32% target and the long-term decarbonization objectives set forth by the Paris Agreement. The renewable energy industry considers that the draft NECPs submitted so far to the European Commission are lacking substantial details:
• Ambition. The NECPs’ level of ambition must be significantly increased to reach the 2030 targets and maintain the competitiveness of the EU renewable energy industry
• Robustness, clarity, visibility. The plans need to clearly translate the provisions of the Clean Energy Package into actionable and forward-looking national policies. Member States should clearly define how they plan to comply with the requirements of provisions such as the sectorial objective on renewable heating and cooling, enabling energy communities, or aligning their electricity market.
• The draft NECPs’ should be aligned with other relevant European policies, such as the innovation policy and the SET Plan targets.
The renewable energy industry is a key enabler of growth in Europe. Our industry now urges the European Union to call for more robustness and ambition in the NECPs, in order to enable the EU to remain on track to meet its renewable energy target to 2030.
All signatories of this letter remain at full disposal to provide more information where needed and hope this call for action will be taken into account.
Click here to download the letter in PDF
EGEC is currently looking for a Head of Policy & Regulation, to join its team in Brussels, to start before September 2019.
Reykjavik, May 3, 2019
The GEOTHERMICA Consortium announced today the launch of an additional joint call on June 3 with a deadline for pre-proposals on September 13, 2019. The Second Call will build on the success of the previous one and incorporate valuable lessons learnt during the last four years. Moreover, the GEOTHERMICA Consortium will be broadening for the Second Call, with Norway and USA joining, giving GEOTHERMICA now the weight to influence and accelerate the development of geothermal energy globally.
GEOTHERMICA’s second call objective is to accelerate the development of geothermal energy globally, by combining the financial resources and know-how of its respective partners, as well as expanding the utilisation of clean and renewable low carbon geothermal energy beyond its traditional markets and regions. In addition, GEOTHERMICA seeks to explore optimization of geothermal direct use and power generation, including innovative integrated and combined systems.
In the previous call, GEOTHERMICA financed, with the support of the European Commission, eight large Inter-European projects, allocating close to €30 million to innovation and technology development projects. The available budget for the Second Call will be confirmed with the publication of the call text but indicative commitments are close to €20 million in total.
GEOTHERMICA Second Call Timeline:
• 2 MAY 2019 Pre-announcement of Second Call
• 3 JUNE 2019 Call text published
• 13 SEPTEMBER 2019 Deadline for project pre-proposals submission
• 11 NOVEMBER 2019 Notification to projects that passed
• 31 JANUARY 2020 Call for full proposal closes
• 1 JUNE 2020 Tentative date for funding recommendation and announcement of results to Main Applicants
• 1 SEPTEMBER 2020 Tentative date for national funding decisions and contracts completed. Start of projects
*Rules and conditions apply. Project proposals must meet both national/regional requirements as well as GEOTHERMICA rules. Please consult your respective national authority for guidelines.
The first appointment of the European project GEOENVI aimed at tackling environmental concerns for the use of geothermal energy and propose new technological and normative solutions.
Rome 18.04.2019 The GEONVI project was presented this morning in Rome. The project, supported under Horizon 2020, is aimed at implementing a planning strategy together with public decision-makers to ensure that deep geothermal energy can play an important role in the development of energy systems, in line with the principles of sustainability. The conference was opened by Mr. Davide Crippa, Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of Economic Development: “The decision to include geothermal energy within the Fer2 decree stems from the need to respond to new requirements for emissions, which is also the basis of the GEOENVI project, fundamental precisely because of its ability to identify forward-looking ideas for the abatement of polluting systems and also for the promotion of new technologies”. The Undersecretary then illustrated the Government's forthcoming initiatives, announcing a consultation aimed at tracing simplified operational guidelines and procedures connected to geothermal installations, with an eye also to the optimal planning of the refurbishment of existing installations. As for new installations, Mr Crippa underlined instead the priority to realize a balanced and punctual plan to tackle emissions reduction, aiming at the best technologies ".
"The development of renewable sources and decarbonisation represent a great opportunity for economic growth, environmental improvement and the promotion of the Italian supply chain, especially in the case of technology such as geothermal energy, an element of excellence for our energy system", commented Simone Mori, President of Electricità Futura. "The goal of the GEOENVI project, widely shared by Elettricità Futura, is to implement this technology through solutions that are environmentally acceptable as well as harmoniously integrated with our territory. The numerous adhesions by Italian partners to this project demonstrates the will for our sector, to realize inclusive planning that will see in the Decree Fer2 an effective tool”.
As highlighted by Philippe Dumas, EGEC Secretary General and coordinator of the GEOENVI project, "The geothermal energy market in Europe is developing strongly: the installed electric power in 2018 has indeed exceeded 3 GWe (with annual production of over 21 TWh), and 300 geothermal district heating plants and 2 million geothermal heat pumps are currently in operation. In Italy, geothermal energy is an important industrial sector, which involves small and large companies, is highly innovative and exports all over the world, also thanks to a historically strong and consolidated internal market".
The topic of research and innovation in the geothermal sector with particular reference to minimizing environmental impact was developed by Riccardo Basosi, Italian Energy Representative in Horizon 2020 and MIUR Delegate for the EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan). In his speech, Mr Basosi highlighted the substantial commitment of Italy that participates in 12 Projects out of 18 financed by the European Commission and coordinates 4 with a success rate and financial recovery of 13.5% of the total expenditure, for an amount of € 20 million.
One of the strengths of the GEOENVI project, according to Loredana Torsello, head of international projects of CoSviG and Italian referent for the SET Plan on deep geothermal energy, is the effort that the project partners are dedicating to defining a rigorous and reliable methodological path that could nevertheless become an accessible and available tool for public decision-makers involved in defining regulatory and authorization procedures that could enable the development of geothermal energy consistent with the criteria of sustainable development of the energy and territorial systems involved. This will give the operators a strong push to adopt a shared technical and scientific approach at European level with regards to evaluation methodologies. Moreover, thanks to the sharing of a robust and shared methodological approach for the evaluation of impacts, citizens and local communities will be able to mitigate their concerns and contribute in an informed way to the definition of development of geothermal energy more consistent with the sensitivities and the vocations of the territories involved.
Daniele Fiaschi, associate professor of Renewable Energy and Energy Systems at the University of Florence and coordinator of the Italian group in the inter-university consortium CSGI, partner of the GEOENVI project, showcased the approach for the harmonization of the parameters for the environmental impact assessment guidelines of deep geothermal energy, which is one of the primary objectives of the project. Among these, the PES (Primary Energy Saving) allows for example to estimate the role of geothermal energy in the national thermoelectric landscape and its contribution to the reduction of polluting emissions deriving from the use of fossil fuels.
The mitigation of environmental impacts is already a reality based on numerous environmental parameters, as highlighted by Adele Manzella, a representative for CNR working group partner of the project and President of Unione Geotermica Italiana. Italy and Tuscany are at the forefront of this sector, and GEOENVI will describe and compare available technologies, including monitoring technologies, and methods to address and minimize critical issues, starting with the legal provisions already in force in various countries.
"Enel Green Power has inherited and developed this important technology that is part of the heritage of our country's history," commented Carlo Pignoloni, Enel Green Power's Renewable Energy Manager. According to Mr. Pignoloni, “Thanks to continuous interaction with the institutions, [EGP] has been tracing a path of sustainable development within the industrial value- chain, with innovative solutions that favor the re-use of heat and CO2 to favor the economic and social development of the territory, also with an eye towards circular economy ".
In conclusion, Maria Laura Parisi, Researcher at the University of Siena and national co-chair of the Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies working group of the Italian Association LCA, illustrated the objectives of the GEOENVI project for the proposal of guidelines for the use of LCA methodology aimed at assessing the environmental performance of geothermal systems. In this context, Ms. Parisi highlighted the crucial methodological aspects for the definition of a standardized approach for the calculation of the eco-profiles of plants for a geothermal generation.
During the opening
ceremony of the GeoTHERM Exhibition and Congress 2019, the Ruggero Bertani European
Geothermal Innovation Award 2019 was awarded to the Swiss company Jansen AG,
for their Jansen HIPRESS borehole heat exchanger, a novel technology for
applications in depths of 300+ meters, that allows the exploitation of high
temperatures at greater depths improving, at the same time, the efficiency of
the heat pump.
The SMARTSPEND project aims for more and better designed public support for energy technology Research & Innovation
EGEC is pleased to announce the five endorsed nominations for the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2019. The final candidates are (in alphabetical order):
POLE AVENIA and 6 out of its 7 partners in the GEO-ENERGY EUROPE project have signed a Partnership Agreement in Dublin last Monday, January 21, 2019 to formalize the creation of the GEO-ENERGY EUROPE metacluster and sustain its life beyond the end of the ongoing project timeframe (2018-2019).
The commissioning of thelargest ORC system in Europe of 17.5 MWe in the Velika Ciglena geothermal power plant, Croatia, was completed by Turboden for the Turkish customer Geoen – MB Holding, in December 2018. The Velika Ciglena project exploits steam and hot water at 170°C to produce electricity to feed the local power grid.
The General Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria) published this week a “White Paper for an Efficient development of Renewable Energy Resources in Italy to 2030” (in Italian). Confindustria recognizes traditional geothermal power plants as the main components of Italy’s geothermal production.
