A prospective study on the geothermal potential in the EU

Geothermal power generation has its roots in Europe, where the first test in 1904 and the real beginning of power generation in 1913 took place in Italy. Since then, the development of geothermal technology has been slow but continuous. Since a decade, thanks to the optimisation of the new binary system technology, geothermal electricity can be produced using lower temperatures. Moreover, with Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), a breakthrough technology proven since 2007, geothermal power can in theory be produced anywhere in Europe. According to the trajectories set out in the National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) of the EU Member States, the capacity will grow from 0.9 GWe installed in 2013 to 1.4 GWe in 2020. The production of geothermal electricity in 2020 is planned to be 11 TWh. These are very conservative targets as the actual potential is much larger. Indeed, information about geothermal potential is not always available (no geological data below 2-3 km from previous exploration campaign for oil, gas etc.) or it is scattered in different ministries, universities, national institutes, oil & gas companies and various private entities. For this reason many policy-makers are simply not aware they stand on a frequently untapped source of local renewable energy. And this is also why geothermal power is not always taken sufficiently into consideration in some NREAPs and other strategic documents on the future electricity mix. The present GEOELEC study makes a first step to fill the existing gap. It provides an outlook of the potential by country; the resource assessment is the product of the integration and interpretation of existing data and a newly defined methodology building on Canadian, Australian, and American methodology. The geological potential (heat in place) for geothermal power has been translated to an economical potential, using a Levelised Cost of Energy (LCoE) value of less than 150 EUR/MWh for the 2030 scenario and less than 100 EUR/MWh for the 2050 scenario: The total geothermal electricity potential in the EU-28 is 21,2 TWh for the year 2020; In 2030 this amounts to 34 TWh or 1% of the projected total electricity production in the EU; Thanks to economies of scale, innovative drilling concepts and substantial cost reduction, the economic potential in the EU grows to approximately 2570 TWh in 2050 potentially covering as much as 50% of the projected electricity produced in the EU) and more than 4000 TWh including Iceland, Turkey and Switzerland.GEOELEC - IE