Policy Documents

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.

Over 200 stakeholders across the value chain of the geothermal sector, government agencies, municipalities, consumers, academia, researchers, think-tanks and civil society called on the European Commission to prepare a European geothermal energy strategy and action plan.  

EGEC welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Commission’s guidelines on designating renewables acceleration areas (RAAs) and highlight the following: Need for a fair evaluation of geothermal-based electricity A higher use of non-price criteria is needed Need for renewable energy auctions by technology Read the full EGEC Response. See EGEC factsheet on Auctions to deploy geothermal.

EGEC welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Commission’s guidelines on designating renewables acceleration areas (RAAs) and highlight the following: Read the full EGEC Response.

EGEC welcomes the Commission's effort to assess the state of public funding and the capacity of EU countries to increase the uptake of private investment in energy efficiency. We firmly believe that geothermal energy can give a great contribution towards this objective.

EGEC welcomes the Commission effort to provide guidance to Member States and market actors on how to unlock private investment, notably by developing innovative financing tools, scaling up financial instruments and making the most of public budget support.

A coalition of 19 organisations, including industry associations, NGOs, consumer groups, and think tanks issued an urgent call to European Commission President von der Leyen. The unexpected delay in publishing the Heat Pump Action Plan, originally set for the first quarter of 2024 and now postponed until after the EU elections, threatens Europe’s energy transition, they warn.

On 20 December, EGEC commented on the Commission draft Delegated Act that sets out a reporting scheme to rate the sustainability of data centres in the EU. The Delegated Act stems from the recast Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive 2012/27/EU), which introduces a requirement to report on the energy performance and sustainability of data centres. 

EGEC provided its answer to a questionnaire which allowed stakeholders to suggest potential revisions of existing activities that are already covered in an EU Taxonomy Delegated Act in force (see Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and Taxonomy Complementary Delegated Act) or under scrutiny by EU co-legislators (see Taxonomy Environmental Delegated Act and amendments to the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act) or to suggest new economic activities that should be added to the EU Taxonomy. 

We support the Heat Pump Accelerator provided it also supports the mass deployment of Geothermal Heat Pumps (GHPs) in buildings, district heating and cooling systems, industry, and agri-foods. This, the call for evidence and three stakeholder workshops have not given adequate visibility and opportunity to discuss policy design to overcome the barriers for geothermal heat pumps.