Geothermal is central to providing Europe with secure, efficient and affordable energy whilst also achieving the EU’s climate goals. Geothermal is the only energy source that can provide continuous baseload renewable electricity, enhance the efficiency of heat pumps as well as decarbonised district and industrial heating and cooling systems, and deliver the least land-intensive and cheapest energy storage solutions, as well as the most environmentally sustainable means of extracting lithium and other raw materials.
EGEC is convinced that a geothermal-specific target must be included in the Action Plan for Geothermal for the upcoming European Geothermal Stakeholder Partnership, as announced in the framework of the Electrification Action Plan (published by the European Commission on 17 July 2026). Furthermore, we believe that the upcoming new Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action (which will replace Regulation (EU) 2018/1999) will turbocharge investment in geothermal energy projects and facilitate significant private capital leverage.
The current energy crisis requires new responses that address the challenges of the 21st Century. Repeating the same responses that were made to previous energy crises would represent a serious strategic failure. Geothermal must be at the heart of the answers to ensuring energy security and sovereignty with clean electricity and heating & cooling from home-grown and renewable sources at an affordable price for all consumers.
Geothermal technologies can reduce and stabilize energy costs over the medium to long term for both businesses and people. Ensuring short-term and long-term security for investment with an ambitious geothermal deployment target for 2040 is necessary in order to accelerate the take-up of geothermal solutions and thereby strengthen the energy sovereignty and economic competitiveness of the EU.
Geothermal solutions encompass a wide variety of versatile technologies that cover electricity generation, heating and cooling, energy storage and critical raw material extraction.
EGEC proposes that the European Union should aim to increase the utilisation of geothermal energy with a target of at least 250 GW total capacity (including heat, cooling and electricity) in the EU27 by 2040.
Reaching this target would enable geothermal energy to provide more than 1,000 TWh of energy per year, which represents around 20% of the EU’s projected Final Energy Consumption (not including transport) in 2040. Progress towards this target should be monitored by the European Geothermal Stakeholder Partnership (to be established in 2027) and in the new Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action.
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