Brussels, 16th December 2024 – The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) is delighted with the Hungarian Presidency for initiating the proposal and to all Member States for adopting today the Council conclusions.
Nominations for the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award are open until 03 January 2025! Applications will be evaluated based on originality, innovation, reliability, emission reductions, and improvements in energy output.
IOGP, the international association of oil and gas producers, outlined a series of measures required to create market maturity for geothermal across Europe. They identify three key measures:
The geothermal industry enjoyed growing market development, but the journey from niche to mainstream energy demands a robust framework based on critical components.
Geothermal is our energy. It is a unique renewable energy source providing baseload electricity, heating, cooling, storage, as well as lithium and other mineral extraction. It rests reassuringly below our feet, homes, offices and factories everywhere. With the right political visibility and regulatory frameworks it will become the foundation of the cheap, local, inclusive and rapid energy transition.
On April 24, Invest-NL, the National Promotional Institute of the Netherlands, released a report to explore opportunities for scaling geothermal energy in the Netherlands. This report, prepared by EGEC and WEP, delves into the geothermal landscape, focusing on key European countries including Germany, Denmark, and France, to provide invaluable insights for the market in the Netherlands.
The EGEC Annual Report 2023 provides a comprehensive overview of the organisation's activities for the year and highlights the significant achievements in the European geothermal sector. Published annually, EGEC's Annual Report serves as a crucial document that reflects EGEC's policy achievements over the past year and sets out the main lines of action for the foreseeable future.
Geothermal energy provides permanent, non-weather dependent supplies of baseload renewable electricity, heating, free cooling, seasonal thermal and electricity storage as well as the most sustainable means of extracting lithium and other raw materials. Yet it is only 2% of final electricity and heating production.
Unleashing Europe’s Geothermal Potential: The geothermal industry enjoyed growing market development but new installations must still triple by the end of the decade.
EGEC’s Annual Report 2022 looks back at the work of the organization and the performance of the European Geothermal sector over the past year, while it looks forward to the challenges ahead.
EGEC welcomes the European Commission’s proposals for a Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net Zero Industry Act. It is vital to strengthen existing European industrial value-chains for geothermal energy to meet the rapid demand driven by consumers and EU policy.
Proceedings of the European Geothermal Congress 2022 are available here. The ISBN code is 978-2-9601946-2-3.
3 March 2023 – EGEC would like to announce that the winner of the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2023 is Huisman Geo, with its innovative project Composite Downhole Tubulars.
On 1st February, the European Commission presented The Green Deal Industrial Plan; Measures include simplifying permitting, adapting EU state aid rules, leveraging EU funds, reinforcing supply chain and enhancing skills.
The ITRE committee of the European Parliament adopted today the recast on Energy performance of Building Directive (EPBD). In the final negotiation (EP vote in Plenary and with Council), phase out the use of fossil fuels in heating and cooling must remain the priority.
In March 2023 EGEC will announce the final winner among the six endorsed nominations for the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2023. The six finalists are (in alphabetical order by company):
Geothermal lithium is extracted from brines used in energy production. It is the most sustainable way to extract lithium compared to hard rock mining or evaporation, which are significantly more harmful to the environment and CO2 intensive. Geothermal lithium provides Europe with greater independence in lithium production and imports.
