Joint Programme on Geothermal
Status: Launched
JP coordinator: Ernst Huenges, GFZ, Germany
Participants/Associates: BRGM (FR), ENERGEA(IT), CNR-IGG (IT), CNRS (FR), CRES (GR), ETH-Z (CH), ISES (IT), ISOR (IS), KIT (DE), LIAG (DE), TNO (NL), BGS (UK), CHYN-UNINE (CH), ENEA (IT), GFZ (DE) , INGV (IT) , LNEG (PT), PTM, RWTH Aachen University (DE), VITO (BE) , IFE (N) , POLIMI (IT) , UNITO (IT) , UNITS (IT) , UNIBA (IT) .
A total of 400 person years/year, for an equivalent budget of more than € 30 MILLION/year, are working with different roles and responsibilities for the JPGE’s ongoing and foreseen research activities and ready to share research infrastructure such as laboratories and computer facilities among the participants.
Background: Geothermal energy is a non-carbon-based renewable energy source, able to provide base load power for electricity and heat generation in many countries around the world. In continental Europe the geothermal potential is estimated to be over 50.000 MW, but only in Italy, Iceland, and Portugal it has been harnessed for the generation of electricity (over 1.400 MW installed capacity). For an increase of the contribution of geothermalenergy to the global power production, research needs to support some major goals:
• significantly enhancing the production from already identified and utilized resources
• exploring at large scale new untapped deep seated (up to 6 km) hydrothermal systems
• making Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) ready for large scale deployment
• accessing “high potential” resources such as Supercritical fluids and Magmatic Systems.
Beside the technological challenges other aspects of relevance for the further development of geothermal energy require to be addressed with innovative approaches and tools to:
• improve the risk assessment and management for a reliable evaluation of the technical, environ-mental and economic sustainability of the projects
• secure the social acceptance of geothermal projects by ensuring that potential site and technology specific side effects are typically relatively minor compared to the benefits
• provide the guidelines to the Regulatory Authorities and Policy Makers for sustainable
development of geothermal initiatives
Structure (Sub Programmes):
- Resource Assessment
- Accessing and Engineering of the Reservoir
- Process Engineering and Design of power systems
- Operation and Management of Geothermal Systems
- Sustainability, Environment and Regulatory Framework
News: Press release (15th November 2012)
Further details please download here