Currently, more than € 30 million per year are allocated to a total of 420-person-years to support different ongoing and foreseen geothermal research activities and ready to share research infrastructure and facilities for joint efforts and experiments within EERA Geothermal.

Background

Geothermal energy is a local source of energy that can provide base-load and dispatchable electricity, heat or a combination of both, not only in Europe but also globally, and, in particular, in several developing countries. In addition, geothermal reservoirs may also act as sites for subsurface energy storage.

EERA Geothermal has the potential to provide an outstanding contribution to the growth of geothermal energy utilization in Europe and worldwide, bringing together all major European research organizations in a strategically oriented endeavour. The participants of EERA Geothermal are active in geothermal energy research ranging from low to high technology readiness levels and have active international collaboration across sectors.

Objectives and activities

EERA Geothermal provides research to

• expand the type, number and size of geothermal resources suitable for increasing power and heat generation;
• improve efficiency, sustainability and flexibility in production of geothermal resources; and
• improve integration of geothermal heat and power in the energy system.

EERA Geothermal incorporates experiences from several plants in operation under different geological environments. Combining the forces of the major European geothermal R&D institutions and considering the strategic goals of the SET-Plan, EERA Geothermal aims at facilitating a significant acceleration of the development for providing reliable and highly efficient technology for the use of deep geothermal resources for heat and power. This is done through integration and coordination activities, knowledge sharing and sharing of facilities.

EERA Geothermal is a key stakeholder of the European Technology & Innovation Platform Deep Geothermal (ETIP-DG) as well as the SET-Plan Implementation Working Group Deep Geothermal (IWG-DG).

Structure

EERA Geothermal has organised its work within eight subprogrammes:

• SP1 Assessment of Geothermal Resources (coordinator: Philippe Calcagno, BRGM)
• SP2 Exploration of Geothermal Reservoirs (coordinator: Jan Diedrik van Wees, TNO)
• SP3 Constructing Geothermal Wells (coordinator: Erlend Randeberg, NORCE)
• SP4 Resource Development (coordinator: Martin Saar, ETHZ)
• SP5 Energy Conversion Systems (coordinator: Paola Bombarda, POLIMI)
• SP6 Operation of Geothermal Systems (coordinator: Thomas Kohl, KIT)
• SP7 Sustainability, Environment and Regulatory Framework (coordinator: Francesco Rizzi, SSSUP)
• SP8 Computing and Data Management (coordinator: Florian Wellmann, RWTH)