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.
EGEC is seeking input and insights into of the Industrial Footprint of the European geothermal industry.
13 July 2022 – EP Vote on recast of EED and RED: more ambition and new measures
The Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee of the European Parliament adopted its amendments on the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive and the Directive on Energy Efficiency.
Brussels, 11 July 2022 - How geothermal is the right answer to the energy crisis, explained this October.
The European Shallow Geothermal Days event is the largest annual gathering in Europe of shallow geothermal energy stakeholders. With more markets opening up to the geothermal energy opportunity, SGD 2022 was the perfect place to network and learn with key players from the sector.
Brussels, 8 June 2022 - The publication of the EGEC Market Report provides an in-depth assessment of the geothermal industry’s evolution during the year 2021.
The European geothermal sector made a strong recovery from the COVID slowdown in 2021.
3 June 2022 – The winner of the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2022 is Baker Hughes with its innovative Corrosion Resistant Podded Electrical Submersible Pump & Completion System. This project, designed and developed by Baker Hughes Artificial Lift Systems and by ECW Geomanagement BV (ECW) has successfully executed an industry-first well completion that allows geothermal production to continue, and the casing to be protected against both localised and general corrosion.
The completion includes an Electrical Submersible Pump deployed on production tubing, pressure sealed within a pod, and set in a custom completion system that also allows for deep corrosion inhibitor injection.
The geothermal brine produced from these wells are used to heat greenhouses to grow produce; a substitute to burning natural gas for heating the greenhouses, which significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the produce. By successfully keeping these geothermal wells in production it allows the greenhouses to minimize their carbon footprint and provides the geothermal operators a well model that can potentially be scaled to grow the market. Past cases have shown that switching from natural gas to geothermal energy reduces carbon emission by 90% in greenhouses within the Netherlands. Specifically, ECW reports that by using geothermal instead of natural gas, 110,000 tonnes (or 110,000,000 kg) of CO2 emissions are mitigated per year.
Miklos Antics, President of the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) and member of the jury, said “This is an important progress towards unlocking the geothermal decade as it will lead to production costs optimisation, sustainable operation and last but not least significant improvement of efficiency and plant availability.”
After two years of online events, the award has been handed out physically at GEOTHERM Expo & Congress in Offenburg. This year the event took place on 2nd June.
As every year, the competition was very high-level. The finalists included: Celsius Energy (France) with the project Celsius Energy System, Fraunhofer Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems IEG (Germany), with the project Energy concept for geothermal cooling and heating.; Izmir Institute of Technology (Turkey) with the project Capture and using CO2 as an inhibitor in geothermal power plant.; Perryman Technologies Research (France) with the project Geothermal Lithium Extraction.
The jury for 2022 was composed of Miklos Antics (France, representing EGEC), Inga Berre (Norway, research expert), Sandra Kircher (Germany, representing Messe Offenburg), Fausto Batini (Italy, representing ETIP-DG, industry expert), and Javier Urchueguia (Spain, representing RHC-ETIP geothermal panel).
The Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award is an initiative of EGEC, the European Geothermal Energy Council, in collaboration with Messe Offenburg, organisers of the GeoTHERM Fair and Congress. It is given to companies which have made an outstanding contribution towards the field of geothermal energy in the form of innovative products, scientific research and project initiatives.
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Contact:
Consuelo Serrano / Communications Officer / c.serrano@egec.org
ABOUT EGEC – EUROPEAN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY COUNCIL
The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) is a not-for-profit organisation promoting all aspects of the geothermal industry. It was founded in 1998 to facilitate awareness and expansion of geothermal applications in Europe and worldwide by shaping policy, improving investment conditions and steering research.
Over 120 members from 28 countries, including developers, equipment manufacturers, electricity providers, national associations, consultants, research centres, geological surveys, and public authorities gives EGEC the ability to represent the entire geothermal sector.
EGEC is listed in the European Transparency Register No. 11458103335-07 For more information visit www.egec.org
18 May 2022 - The European Commission’s REPowerEU plan outlined a series of proposals to move geothermal from niche to a mainstream solution to addressing the climate, energy transition and Ukraine crises.
The EU Solar Strategy called for a trebling of geothermal capacity by 2030 whilst the EU Save Communication and legislative proposals outlined essential improvements that create a market for geothermal heating, cooling, and power as well as streamlining the process for capacity to come online. Geothermal supply base load electricity to stabilise the grid, secure the supply, and green the power. Geothermal heating and cooling is key to decarbonise buildings and the industry.
The Communication also calls for 20 million geothermal and ambient heat pumps to be installed in the EU by 2026 and nearly 60 million units by 2030.
An additional €20 billion grant funding to Member States to deliver these investments is welcome. Some of this finance should be used for an EU financial de-risking scheme to accelerate investment in geothermal and other renewable heating solutions.
Phillipe Dumas, Secretary-General of the European Geothermal Energy Council said:
“Today geothermal finally achieved the recognition it has long merited. Now it is vital that permitting rules, an EU-wide financial risk mitigation framework and stronger rules to remove fossil heating are put into action.”
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Contact:
Sanjeev Kumar / Head of Policy / s.kumar@egec.org
ABOUT EGEC – EUROPEAN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY COUNCIL
The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) is a not-for-profit organisation promoting all aspects of the geothermal industry. It was founded in 1998 to facilitate awareness and expansion of geothermal applications in Europe and worldwide by shaping policy, improving investment conditions and steering research.
Over 120 members from 28 countries, including developers, equipment manufacturers, electricity providers, national associations, consultants, research centres, geological surveys, and public authorities gives EGEC the ability to represent the entire geothermal sector.
EGEC is listed in the European Transparency Register No. 11458103335-07 For more information visit www.egec.org
In June 2022 EGEC will announce the final winner among the five endorsed nominations for the Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award 2021.
On 11 April 2022, 150 business and industries called on the European Commission to prepare a European strategy to unlock the potential of geothermal energy as well as associated sustainable mineral extraction.
Download the full version of the letter
The geothermal sector needs you. It is vital to get the European Commission’s regulatory, financial and political support behind the geothermal sector. This will allow it to identify and rectify regulatory and fiscal roadblocks to mass deployment of geothermal energy including sustainable mineral extraction.
