Seán Kelly MEP was a keynote speaker at the European Geothermal District Heating & Cooling Conference, which was held at The Gibson Hotel in Dublin (Ireland) on 3 September 2026. The Conference was co-organised by EGEC and GAI (Geothermal Association of Ireland). Mr Kelly has served as a Member of the European Parliament since 2009 (elected in the South of Ireland). He is a full member of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. He also leads the Irish delegation within the EPP Group, which is the largest political group in the European Parliament. Photo: Cristina Pulidori (@cris35mm_) for EGEC & GAI, 2026 Here is the prepared text of Mr Kelly's speech (published with his permission): Ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to join you here in Dublin for the Geothermal District Heating and Cooling Days. I want to begin by welcoming the European geothermal community to Ireland and congratulating the European Geothermal Energy Council and the Geothermal Association of Ireland for bringing this event here. Today’s discussion is timely, simply because we have a major heating challenge in Ireland. We have significant geothermal potential, and we have a developing district heating sector. Perhaps most importantly, however, is that we have an increasingly urgent need to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels. For many years, Europe built a large part of its economy around an assumption that imported fossil fuels would remain relatively cheap, stable and readily available. Russia's invasion of Ukraine exposed just how big a mistake that was, and the instability we have seen in the Middle East this year has done so again. We learned after Russia's invasion that Europe could change from where it bought its fossil fuels. However, the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz over the past six months has reminded us that diversifying suppliers is not the same thing as achieving energy independence. As long as we remain dependent on imported fossil fuels, events thousands of kilometres from Ireland can still determine what an Irish household or business pays for energy. That vulnerability has consequences for households through their energy bills, for businesses through higher operating costs, and ultimately for our competitiveness as a country and as a European Union. A business making an investment needs some confidence about what its energy costs will look like in five, ten or fifteen years, and at the moment, both in Ireland and across Europe, we are struggling to give them this confidence. We remain heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels for heat, while natural gas continues to play a major role in our electricity system. More than 90 per cent of Irish heat demand was still being met by fossil fuels in 2024, with renewables accounting for only 7.9 per cent of heat consumption. We are very exposed and vulnerable. I believe delivering energy independence must become the central objective of European energy policy, and for Ireland that means using far more of the energy resources available to us here at home. On the 17th of July, the European Commission published its new Electrification Action Plan, and I believe this will be one of the most consequential pieces of European energy policy in this Commission's mandate. The starting point for this strategy is eye-opening: Around 70 per cent of European electricity is now generated from clean energy sources. Yet electricity still accounts for only around 23 per cent of final energy demand, and that figure has barely moved over the past decade. The Commission therefore wants Europe to become what it describes as the world's first electro-powered continent. It will assess an electrification target of 46 per cent by 2040. The Commission estimates that reaching that level could reduce Europe's fossil fuel import bill by €260 billion every year. That is €260 billion leaving the European economy every year to pay for imported fossil fuels rather than being invested in European infrastructure, European industry and European jobs. That’s the cost of well over 100 National Children’s Hospitals leaving the EU every year. There is a clear realisation at EU level now that electrification is a critical part of our energy, industrial, competitiveness and Climate policies, and Geothermal Energy has a very clear place within that agenda. That is one of the things I particularly welcome about the new Action Plan. The Commission explicitly identifies geothermal as an underutilised European resource. Its assessment is that, with the right enabling framework, geothermal could cost-effectively meet at least 10 per cent of Europe's electricity needs and as much as 25 per cent of heating and cooling demand. That is a very significant statement of support for developing the sector further, and the Commission is beginning to match that recognition with concrete policy. A new European Geothermal Stakeholder Partnership will be established by the first quarter of next year. Its purpose is to tackle the regulatory, technical and investment barriers holding geothermal back. Member States and industry will work together on issues such as geological data, national geothermal strategies, financing, permitting, skills and public acceptance. There is great potential here for better cooperation and sharing of best practice among EU Members. Countries such as Ireland should not be trying to develop a geothermal market in isolation given there are European countries with much more mature sectors in which there are financing structures that have been tested, and regulatory systems that work. There are lessons from projects that succeeded and from those that did not, and there is a great opportunity for Ireland to learn from that experience and apply it rapidly at home. When it comes to implementing the Action Plan, I think it is important that we electrify intelligently. The objective shouldn’t necessarily be to just electrify as much heat as possible, but instead we should work to electrify heat as efficiently as possible. The Commission is proposing new rules to make it easier to integrate demand response, battery storage, thermal storage, geothermal, electric vehicles and heat pumps into the electricity system, and this is something I strongly welcome. I have spent much of this parliamentary term working on Europe's electricity grids, and it goes without saying that we need enormous investment in them. But we should also make the best possible use of every megawatt of grid capacity that we build. If geothermal can deliver useful heat with lower electricity demand and lower peak demand on the grid, then it is bringing a significant amount of system value that we need to recognise and incentivise. The system benefits are potentially enormous. Ground-source heat pumps can provide highly efficient heating and cooling from a stable thermal source, thermal storage can move energy use across time, and district heating networks can integrate geothermal alongside waste heat and other clean sources. For a country already dealing with significant grid constraints, these attributes are worth their weight in gold. The Action Plan is very ambitious on heat pumps in general. It is targeting an increase in heat pump installations across Europe from around 2.4 million per year in 2025 to around 4 million per year by 2030. The Commission is proposing to rapidly accelerate deployment and use European financing platforms to help de-risk investment in heat pumps, district heating and cooling, geothermal and related projects. This ambition is welcome from an Irish perspective, as one of the problems facing geothermal in Ireland is the tendency to compare technologies almost entirely on upfront capital cost, which can give a distorted picture. It is important, instead, to consider the value of a geothermal system over its full operating life. And this is where some of the emerging Energy-as-a-Service and Heat-as-a-Service models are particularly interesting. A hospital or university does not necessarily need to become an expert geothermal infrastructure company. Specialist providers and long-term infrastructure investors can own and operate those systems and sell heating and cooling as a service to the customer. The other area where I see enormous potential is district heating and cooling. The European Commission wants district heating and cooling networks to grow by 6 to 7 per cent per year to 2030 and to provide 15 per cent of Europe's heating and cooling supply by then. The Action Plan recognises that these systems can integrate geothermal, waste heat, large heat pumps and thermal storage while reducing pressure on the electricity grid. More than half of Ireland's heat demand is concentrated in our five largest urban centres, and we have growing heat demand around cities, campuses, hospitals, housing developments and commercial sites. At the same time, we have significant sources of waste heat and geothermal resources that have hardly begun to be exploited. This presents a great opportunity. But an opportunity is nothing without action. Ireland published its Policy Statement on Geothermal Energy for a Circular Economy in 2023, something that was very welcome. However, it is now September 2026. Three years is too long for a policy statement on a valuable indigenous energy resource to be sitting on a shelf awaiting full implementation, particularly when the geopolitical context has changed so dramatically around us. The European Commission has now placed geothermal explicitly within its strategy for electrification, energy independence and competitiveness; we need to respond accordingly. We need to put in place the required frameworks and supports to get this sector moving. Every major new public building and significant public-sector heating retrofit should at least be asking the question: has geothermal been properly assessed? Policy at both national and European level tends to suffer from an implementation gap. We make plans, targets and strategies, but then don’t do enough to see it realised. I’ve seen the same in my work on the electricity grids. When infrastructure is clearly necessary for our economic security, we must become much better at moving from policy to delivery. During the Covid pandemic, the State showed that it could move with extraordinary speed when extraordinary circumstances required it. Energy security and energy independence require some of that same urgency. Every additional unit of heat that we can produce efficiently from an indigenous renewable resource reduces our exposure to events elsewhere in the world. And that’s before we even consider the economic argument. If we can establish a genuine domestic geothermal market, Irish engineers, drillers, consultants, designers and developers will build expertise and ensure geothermal it becomes a thriving Irish industry in its own right. We need to show ambition here and deliver. If I’m asked back to speak at this conference again in three years’ time, I sincerely hope we are no longer spending most of our time talking about Ireland's geothermal potential, but instead about a healthy pipeline of projects that are either in planning or under construction. Ireland has a substantial indigenous energy resource beneath our feet, and we have talked about its potential for long enough. It’s about time we put in place the conditions to utilise it.

Brussels, 17 July 2026 – Whilst we welcome the publication of the European Commission’s Electrification Action Plan, EGEC remains surprised that the Geothermal Action Plan was not published alongside it today. The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) welcomes the Electrification Action Plan and endorses its central objective to speed up “electrification across the sectors that are most dependent on fossil fuels, notably transport, buildings and industry”. The situation in the Middle East has already cost energy consumers across the European Union an additional €53 billion on energy imports. Dramatic course-correction is required. To deliver this, the Commission will create a Geothermal Stakeholder Partnership by Q1 2027 to remove regulatory, technical and investment barriers and accelerate the deployment of geothermal in Europe. The Geothermal Action Plan is urgently needed as a roadmap for the Partnership to frontload investments in Europe’s energy security, competitiveness and affordability. We also welcome actions to remove barriers to the deployment of renewable heating technologies including thermal storage, reference to geothermal passive cooling combined with measures to accelerate the deployment of geothermal heat pumps in public buildings. The future adoption of a Cooling and Heating Plan should aim at phasing out fossil fuels and “to address the growing need for efficient cooling”. Philippe Dumas, Secretary General of EGEC, stated: “The Commission’s Plan highlights the vital role of geothermal for Europe’s energy independence powered efficiently by clean, local, and affordable energy. The creation of a Geothermal Stakeholder Partnership should provide the engine needed to rapidly scale-up geothermal deployment in Europe. Now the Commission must also come forward with a robust European Geothermal Action Plan, which could provide a roadmap for the Stakeholder Partnership to fast-track investments.” Sanjeev Kumar, EGEC's Policy Director, added: “Geothermal makes electrification cheap, accessible and affordable for all. The Geothermal Action Plan must be published now to empower investors and consumers.”Press Release (PDF version) For more information about the Electrification Action Plan, see the Press Release from the European Commission (17 July 2026)For more information about EGEC’s recommendations, see our policy statement: The European Geothermal Strategy and Action Plan (December 2025) In case of questions, please contact:Philippe Dumas, EGEC Secretary Generalp.dumas@egec.org | +32 497 45 44 37Sanjeev Kumar, EGEC Policy Directors.kumar@egec.org | +32 499 53 97 31

7 July 2026 EGEC, together with 85 other European associations representing key industrial and technological sectors, is calling on the EU institutions to develop and implement an ambitious 7-year research and innovation programme after the end of Horizon Europe (which runs out at the end of 2027). The next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation will be the 10th multi-annual programme since the first was launched in 1984. FP10 will cover the seven years from 2028 until the end of 2034. Here (below) is the text of the Joint Declaration for a Bold FP10: Investing in Research, Development and Innovation to Boost European Productivity and Competitiveness Europe stands at a decisive juncture. The Draghi report on European Competitiveness has laid bare a stark reality: Europe's productivity growth has stalled, its innovation gap with the United States and China is widening, and the continent risks a slow but irreversible decline in its economic standing. At the same time, the Competitiveness Compass and the EU’s political guidelines place research, development and innovation (RD&I) at the heart of Europe’s strategy to reverse this trend. We, the undersigned — 86 European associations representing key RD&I stakeholders — fully endorse this diagnosis and urgently call on EU Institutions to act with commensurate ambition in designing and funding the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10). The Draghi report calls for an additional €800 billion per year in investment to close Europe’s competitiveness gap, with RD&I as the primary driver of sustainable productivity gains. Innovation-led productivity growth is not merely an economic imperative — it is the only credible path to financing Europe’s green and digital transitions, its open strategic autonomy, and its social model. FP10 is the EU’s principal instrument for catalysing this transformation. Its track record of leveraging private investment, maturing technologies, and building the cross-border collaborative ecosystems that no single Member State can replicate alone makes it uniquely placed to deliver at the scale and speed Europe requires. Yet current EU RD&I spending remains wholly insufficient relative to this challenge. Europe invests significantly less in R&D as a share of GDP than its main global competitors, and the leverage effects of the Framework Programme — demonstrated conclusively by the Horizon 2020 ex-post evaluation — mean that every euro of EU public investment generates multiples in private and national co-investment. Cutting or stagnating FP10’s budget would be a false economy: it would undermine precisely the public-private partnerships, the technology maturation pipelines, and the talent networks that are indispensable to restoring European productivity growth. We therefore call on EU Institutions to: Allocate a substantially increased budget to FP10, commensurate with the ambition set out in the Draghi report and the Competitiveness Compass, over the 2028–2034 MFF period; Reinforce collaborative, industry-driven RD&I through a strengthened Pillar II, ensuring that public-private partnerships continue to reduce investment risk, accelerate technology maturation and translate research excellence into market-ready innovations that boost productivity; Ensure FP10, together with ECF, supports the full RD&I continuum — from fundamental research to deployment and scale-up — aligned with EU strategic priorities and clearly defined industrial needs, including the green and digital transitions and European security and resilience. Preserving a strong ECF and FP10, both in terms of budget and in terms of governance and synergies between the two programmes is essential to support the entire innovation cycle, strengthen Europe’s industrial base, and deliver on the Union’s competitiveness objectives. The window of opportunity is narrow. Decisions taken in the coming months on the next MFF will determine whether Europe has the RD&I firepower to compete globally and sustain its prosperity. We, the undersigned associations, stand ready to work with EU Institutions to design an FP10 that is bold, well-resourced, and fit to deliver the innovation-driven productivity growth Europe urgently needs. Joint Declaration for a Bold FP10: Investing in Research, Development and Innovation to Boost European Productivity and Competitiveness

Europe’s energy security, competitiveness, and prosperity depend on the rapid acceleration of geothermal investments combined with upscaling of domestic production capacity. Geothermal energy was recognised by Mario Draghi’s 2024 report as one of the last remaining European technologies in which European companies still have technological leadership, and the Act should capitalize on this strategic reality by establishing a mandate to cement Europe's position as global leader in geothermal technology and innovation. President von der Leyen stated, at the European Parliament’s Plenary in October 2025, that “The lowest prices for energy are in countries that produce abundant low-carbon energy – be it solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal or nuclear”. Therefore, the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) must provide opportunities for new or expanded manufacturing capacity to benefit from cheap and local geothermal electricity, heating, cooling or critical raw material usage. Geothermal benefits the European economy by: • Helps European Industry remain competitive. For example, BASF and Vulcan Energy have signed agreements to supply geothermal heat to BASF's Ludwigshafen chemical complex, Europe's largest chemical site. Volvo’s manufacturing plant in Koping, Sweden ̈, which specialises in the production of gearboxes for trucks, boats and buses, converted to geothermal in 2014. Kiilto Oy’s chemical plant in Lempäälä, Finland, commissioned a geothermal system in 2018 which saved over 350,00 CO2e emissions per year. The Stellantis plant in France invested in geothermal in 2025 and has cut gas consumption by 70%, CO2e emissions by 75% and water use by 15%. • Clean firm or “baseload” electricity and heating. For example, Geothermal power plants operate for the most hours per year (89-73%) compared to nuclear (79-74%), gas (37-34%), coal (45-42%), hydro (34- 31%), wind (25-23%) and solar PV (10-11%). • Lowers the cost of electricity grid impacts. For example, Element Energy’s research indicates that if the UK were to use Geothermal Heat Pumps to electrify all heating and cooling demand, it would save more than 26 TWh of electricity, which is equivalent to the planned Hinkley Point C power plant, which is estimated to cost £35 billion (circa €40 billion). • The most efficient and least electricity-consuming cooling. For example, a geothermal cooling installation in Paterna, near Valencia, reduced electricity consumption by 60%, contributing to lowering peak demand. Stadtwerke München, the energy utility owned by Munich’s local government, invested in communal cooling network in the Sendling district to reduce the electricity consumption linked to cooling by 70% across its 22 km grid. • Least land-intensive and lowest cost storage. For example, underground thermal energy storage systems can store large quantities of heat and cooling beneath existing urban developments, requiring only a fraction of the land needed for surface energy infrastructure. IRENA indicated that underground thermal energy storage costs are in the range of 0.1 to 35 USD/kWh, which makes it the cheapest of all storage options. Geothermal storage with a 90GW Eavor-LoopTM next generation geothermal system would replace an additional 200 GW of capacity to meet a 110 GW demand and save 9,000 km2 of land for other purposes. • Geothermal lithium and other critical raw materials. European experts pioneered lithium extraction from geothermal brines. The leading European suppliers of lithium hydroxide are located in Germany, France and Italy. Geothermal lithium is extracted rather than mined, which makes it the most environmentally friendly extractive technique. For example, geothermal lithium projects in Upper Rhine Valley have the potential to supply enough sustainable lithium for several hundred thousand electric vehicle batteries annually while simultaneously producing renewable energy and heat. Geothermal in the Industrial Accelerator Act

EGEC signs a Declaration of Support to foster the sustainable integration of data centres in the energy system  5 June 2026  The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) welcomes the adoption of the European Commission's Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy sector, and the opportunity for the geothermal sector to sign a Declaration of Intent with the European Commission, the data centre operators, the energy-related parties and the public authorities.  The Roadmap sends a strong political signal that digitalisation and AI must become central enablers of Europe's clean energy transition and industrial competitiveness and geothermal is a key solution to allow an affordable transition.   The rapid deployment of AI technologies and cloud computing is expected to significantly increase Europe's electricity and cooling demand. The Geothermal energy sector is ready to provide an immediate and long-term solutions to these challenges.   Geothermal is:   A baseload, domestic, renewable energy source present all over Europe  Capable of generating electricity 24/7  Supplying heating small and large scale  Supplying free or active cooling   Providing underground energy storage esp for waste heat  Enabling the extraction of critical raw materials, including lithium, produced in Europe.  Unlike many clean technology, geothermal is made in Europe. The resource is local, stable, and shielded from geopolitical shocks, making geothermal uniquely positioned to become a strategic partner for Europe's future AI and data infrastructure.   Geothermal electricity has a unique value in generating base load electricity 24/7 anywhere in Europe.  Geothermal cooling technologies have already demonstrated strong operational performance in Europe. Existing projects show that geothermal free cooling can dramatically reduce electricity consumption while maintaining reliable year-round operation for high-demand digital infrastructure. Underground technologies also support seasonal balancing for heat and cooling demand, including the storage and reuse of waste heat generated by data centres.   The geothermal sector already uses AI and advancing computing technologies to improve exploration, drilling, reservoir modelling, operations and predictive maintenance. Digitalisation and AI can significantly reduce project development risks and lower the levelised cost of geothermal energy. The sector therefore welcomes the Roadmap's ambition to strenghten research and innovation for AI applications in the energy sector.  Permitting remains one of the main bottlenecks for geothermal deployment in Europe. Digital permitting platforms integrating geological mapping and environmental assessments could substantially reduce delays and increase investors certainty.   Representing EGEC at the signature with the European Commission and the data centre industry, EGEC board members highlighted:  “On the occasion of this Declaration of Support, we underline the essential role of sustainable power supply for data centres, with geothermal ensuring reliable baseload renewable energy. Maximising waste heat recovery is equally key to integrating data centres into local energy systems. At the same time, strengthening Europe’s manufacturing technologies is strategic to deliver resilient, competitive, and decarbonised digital and energy infrastructure.” - Marco Baresi - VP EGEC    "Today’s signing marks a significant step in turning our Strategic Roadmap on Data Centers into reality. This tripartite agreement demonstrates how collaboration between the European Commission, industry, and energy partners can unlock new opportunities for sustainable digital growth. By integrating geothermal energy into the development of data center infrastructure, we are creating a model that strengthens energy security, supports decarbonization, and enhances our competitiveness in the global digital economy. Together, we are building the foundations for a future where digital innovation and clean energy advance hand in hand." - Kamila Piotrowska - VP EGEC  "Europe's energy sovereignty will increasingly depend not only on access to energy resources, but also on leadership in digital technologies and artificial intelligence. As AI transforms how energy systems are designed, operated, and optimized, geothermal energy has a unique role to play by providing reliable, domestic, and low-carbon power and heat that can support the growing energy demands of digital infrastructure. This Strategic Roadmap sets out a shared vision to strengthen Europe's resilience, competitiveness, and ability to shape its own energy future." - Carla Barrera - EGEC board member  EGEC therefore is now willing to be among the first signatories of a tripartite agreement on sustainable integration of data centres. 

Policy document published by EGEC on 15 May 2026 Additional substantive measures for the Geothermal Action Plan