The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) has called on European Union (EU) officials to prioritise geothermal in the wake of the planned phase out of Russia gas imports.
It comes after the EU agreed to end Russian gas imports by late 2027 as part of an effort to terminate its decades-long dependency on energy supplies by its neighbour.
Moscow was the EU's former top gas supplier prior to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but efforts have been made to diversify European energy sources since.
“Following on from the EU’s commitments to phase out energy imports from Russia, make energy affordable, boost industrial competitiveness, improve energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, EGEC insists that the European Commission (EC) must present an investment-orientated strategy and action plan to accelerate the deployment of all geothermal energy solutions,” an EGEC statement read.
The Council called on the EC to publish a dedicated European geothermal strategy and action plan in the first quarter of 2026.It added that this echoes requests made by EU energy ministers and also by the European Parliament.
“Indeed, the European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, has already confirmed (on 14 March 2025) that the Commission will present ‘an action plan on geothermal energy’ before the end of March 2026,” the statement noted.
According to EGEC, the Commission’s proposal must include the following elements:
• An EU-wide target to reach 250 GW of geothermal capacity by 2040 covering all technologies. This will build on the 44 GW of installed capacity in the EU.
• A European Geothermal Charter, which codifies the 2040 target and launches the Geothermal Industrial Alliance to manage its delivery.
• Targeted European financial instruments to leverage private capital.
• Measures to make permitting processes more efficient and faster, as well as improving access to geological data.
• Sectoral or tripartite agreements with key energy consumers.
• Peer-to-peer guidance to help governments develop national and regional roadmaps to remove barriers, accelerate investments and build local supply chains.
• European instruments to support value chain development in local manufacturing and skilled professionals.
• The inclusion of geothermal energy as a central pillar of the EU’s Global Gateway and the Global Energy Transition Forum.
• Improvements to the collection and presentation of market data and statistics to enable better energy modelling.
EGEC has laid out all of its proposals in a new policy document entitled: The European geothermal strategy and action plan – making Europe competitive, secure and affordable.