GOOD NEWS FOR GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN EUROPE
GEOTHERMICA PROJECTS START KICKING OFF
GEOTHERMICA – ERA NET Cofund has selected nine high quality transnational projects on geothermal energy for funding. The total investment in the projects is close to € 50 million. About half is funded by GEOTHERMICA and the other half comes from project partners. As soon as all contracts have been signed, the projects will be announced at the GEOTHERMICA website.
Projects cover a broad range of topics such as heat storage, managing induced seismicity, EGS drilling and completion, production operations, composite casing and integrated applications of geothermal heat. They have participants from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, Ireland, France, Flanders, Denmark, Slovenia, Germany, Spain, Italy and Azores Portugal.
This is the first series of GEOTHERMICA-funded projects that demonstrate and validate novel concepts of geothermal energy deployment within the energy system. They bring innovative geothermal energy solutions closer to commercial deployment.
Geothermal energy has great potential for the supply of heat and generation of electricity in Europe. European countries and the European Commission have combined their ambition in GEOTHERMICA to finance innovation in the geothermal energy sector. GEOTHERMICA thus enables unlocking of this European potential by research and innovation and further embeds geothermal into Europe’s energy system. This is an important step in the journey towards the transition to a European energy supply free of greenhouse gas emissions.
Check the GEOTHERMICA website www.geothermica.eu for further information and news on the GEOTHERMICA funded projects.
GEOTHERMICA – a multinational collaboration
GEOTHERMICA is a joint effort by EU Member States and Associated Countries complementing Europe’s research and innovation community and industry sector efforts. It will reinforce the sector´s contribution to the goals of the European Energy Union and its Strategic Energy Technology (SET) – Plan, the technology pillar of the EU’s energy and climate policy.
Eighteen geothermal energy research and innovation programme owners and managers from fourteen countries and regions have joined forces and made funds available for research and innovation actions on geothermal energy deployment with financial support from the European Commission.
GEOTHERMICA aims to support transnational, collaborative innovation projects in geothermal energy through joint calls and carry out other activities which will enhance the coordination of public research and innovation programmes and improve the exploitation of results of the projects funded.
Funding of € 18 million for the projects comes from existing national and regional research and innovation programmes and is topped-up by a financial contribution from the EC of more than € 6 million. In 2017, GEOTHERMICA called for innovative demonstration projects and technology development projects that accelerate geothermal energy deployment. Further calls are anticipated.
Background
Geothermal energy is a valuable, readily storable and local source of energy that can cost-effectively provide electricity, heat or a combination of both. With these features, it has the potential to provide real alternatives to replace carbon-intensive power plants, and carbon-intensive heating and cooling, not only in Europe but also globally.
Contact
GEOTHERMICA Office
Name: Harpa Pétursdóttir, Hjalti Páll Ingólfsson
Email: info@ geothermica.eu
