H2020 GEOENVI project

GEOENVI: Tackling the environmental concerns for deploying geothermal energy in Europe

The objective of GEOENVI project is to make sure that deep geothermal energy can play its role in Europe’s future energy supply in an increasingly sustainable way and to create a robust strategy to answer environmental concerns.

The GEOENVI project will start by assessing environmental risks and impacts of geothermal energy: sharing of knowledge by adopting an open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data approach is a key point of the project. A first objective of the project is to provide to geothermal market actors, a toolbox including tools and adapted methodologies on environmental impact assessments of geothermal energy projects, using a life cycle assessment¹ approach. A second objective is  to exchange best practices regarding environmental regulations.

The GEOENVI project focuses on six key countries with varying deep geothermal potential, markets maturity and geological settings: France, Italy, Belgium, Iceland, Turkey and Hungary. These countries have been selected upon potential for deep geothermal and operating (or under development) plants. They also present different and complementary geological settings as well as profiles of environmental concerns.

Case studies have been selected in each of the six targeted countries. This project will engage with all geothermal stakeholders to ensure the exchange of best practices, the test of harmonized methods in selected areas and then, to facilitate its replication across Europe. As a result, the environmental risks and impacts of geothermal energy projects shall be reduced while maximizing the benefits derived from the project to local communities.

16 partners are part of the consortium:

• EGEC (Belgium) – Coordinator
• Rete Geotermica (Italy)
• ENEL Green Power (Italy)
• Consorzio per lo Sviluppo delle Aree Geotermiche (Italy)
• Consorzio Interuniveritrio per lo Sviluppo dei Sistemi a Grande Interfase (Italy)
• Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
• Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres (France)
• ES-Géothermie (France)
• Association pour la Recherche et le Developpement des Methodes et Processus Industriels ARMINES (France)
• Islenskar Orkurannsoknir (Iceland)
• GEORG-Rannsoknarklasi I Jardhita (Iceland)
• Orkustofnun (Iceland)
• Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V. VITO (Belgium)
• Jeotermal Elektrik Santral Yatirimcilari Dernegi JESDER (Turkey)
• Dokuz Eylul Universitesi (Turkey)
• Mining and Geological Survey of Hungary (Hungary)

The project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.818242, is coordinated by EGEC. GEOENVI project will be on-going for 30 months from November 1, 2018. The Kick-off meeting took place in Brussels on November 8-9, 2018.

¹According to the ISO 14014 on environmental management