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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
The potential of geothermal energy in Europe
29/5/2024
8 min read
Feature
In January, the European Parliament heard and adopted a resolution calling for a European strategy on geothermal energy tabled by Poland MEP and University of Bremen Professor Zdzisław Krasnodębski. An edited version of the attached explanatory note is below. The resolution calls for mapping geothermal assets, launching an industrial alliance on geothermal energy, and the introduction of a harmonised insurance scheme to mitigate financial risk for the sector, according to a Euractiv report.
The development of geothermal energy is hindered largely by limited knowledge about existing technologies and their potential, particularly for shallow geothermal development, among policy makers, local authorities, economic actors and the general public. Other challenges are of a financial, legal and technical nature.
While new technologies significantly expand the cost-efficient application of geothermal solutions, differences in geological and climate conditions between European Union (EU) member states are the reason why the costs of deployment of similar projects differ due to, for example, the need for deeper drills, use of geothermal heat pumps and associated infrastructure.
Resource mapping
One of the most important challenges for geothermal is the lack of sufficient geothermal resource mapping. There are industry calls for a solution to ensure that all subsurface data is collected in one place (including the location of decommissioned oil and gas wells) and made available for the public. Practices on data sharing diverge across EU member states.