Reports on Evaluation of Market Barriers for Geothermal District Heating in Europe - State of play, implementation of the RES Directive, and Recommendations

The assessment carried out during the GeoDH project shows how regulatory and market conditions widely vary across the 14 GeoDH countries. However, it is still possible to observe that some practice is perceived as being pre-requisite or very favourable to the development of geothermal district heating technology. This is the case, for instance, where: Geological data are freely available to project developers (e.g. after a five year period in the Netherlands); A public risk insurance scheme is in place (i.e. in France and the Netherlands); There is a clear definition of procedures and licensing authorities (e.g. France, Poland and Denmark) Adequate national and regional strategies (Bulgaria) integrated with some form of financial support (e.g. Hungary, Italy, and, Netherlands, and the UK). Contrariwise, a persisting number of barriers are perceived to be detrimental to any further market development of geothermal / district heating: Market sometimes closed to new entrants (e.g. in Slovenia); Poor regional and local planning Long and burdensome administrative procedures (e.g. in Italy, Slovenia, and Hungary), Serious regulatory gaps such as a lack of dedicated licencing system for deep geothermal and unregulated right to use the geothermal resources (e.g. in Ireland , UK, and Czech Republic), Lack of support (e.g. in Ireland, Poland and Slovakia), and Lack of a level-playing field (e.g. in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands where gas prices are regulated and connection to the gas grid is sometimes mandatory).GeoDH - IE