Project InnerSpace, in partnership with Future Cleantech Architects, has released its ‘Unlocking Europe’s Geothermal Industrial Heat Potential’ analysis identifying geothermal potential across all EU countries and highlighting 30 industrial clusters that are priority candidates for geothermal heat conversions.
The clusters could displace over EUR€850mn a year in fuel spending, and avoid 4.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
The 30 clusters reside in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Spain. These clusters are a starting point: the analysis also identifies a wider pool of 152 candidate clusters that could follow.
Drew Nelson. VP of Strategy at Project InnerSpace, said, “Geothermal is often thought of as electricity, but its industrial heat applications are a major opportunity hiding in plain sight. Europe has enormous potential for geothermal industrial heat. Utilising it can strengthen Europe’s energy security and industrial competitiveness at a time of high energy prices.”
The analysis proposes three policy interventions to support geothermal industrial heat utilisation: identifying and organising the first projects; reducing early-stage risk and unlocking investment; and creating the conditions for geothermal to scale.
Dr. Marlène Siméon, Director of Policy at Future Cleantech Architects, commented, “Next-generation geothermal has great potential but is still in the early phases of commercialisation in Europe. It is precisely at this point that public policy can bridge the gap between the lab and the market – just as it did for solar and wind decades ago.”
The EU’s upcoming Geothermal Strategy and Action Plan is a natural place to bring these measures together by naming priority clusters for geothermal in industrial heat development. Member States can suggest the role geothermal will play in meeting renewable energy targets in their national energy and climate plans.