Despite Europe being a high-temperature geothermal resource, the European Commission has failed to harness the full potential of this technology.
According to estimates from the Clean Air Task Force, Europe's geothermal technology has the ability to generate nearly 18,000 TWh of electricity by tapping a mere 1% of the resource. This is sufficient to power more than 1,400 cities the size of Berlin. Moreover, geothermal energy is a sustainable resource that could drastically reduce Europe's reliance on fossil fuel imports.
Growing calls from the Parliament and the Council to give more attention to geothermal technology, have gone in vain, with the technology being absent from the European Commission's recently released Affordable Energy Action Plan. This exclusion is seen as a major setback, since Europe is now likely to lag behind countries such as Japan, China, Iceland and New Zealand, that are actively funding next-gen geothermal technologies.
However, on the bright side, Europe's history of geothermal thought-leadership, and its competitive advantage over the US – which lacks a coordinated national geothermal strategy and has been stepping back from numerous climate initiatives – brings it one step closer to taking the lead and emerging as a pioneer in geothermal innovation.
As mentioned in a report by Clean Air Task Force, the EU can take the following steps to secure its geothermal leadership:
- Publishing a comprehensive EU Geothermal Strategy: The Commission needs to step up the geothermal innovation game and outline the measures needed to establish a comprehensive strategy by Q1 next year.
- Ensuring next-gen geothermal inclusion in innovation and demonstration funding: Unlocking vast new resources through enhanced and closed-loop technologies can help in the supply of electricity and industrial heat.
- Assuring complete geothermal integration in the EU plan: With a full integration, it becomes easier to develop clean, affordable and secure energy for Europe.