Tackling the environmental concerns for deploying geothermal energy in Europe

Objective

The advantages of using geothermal for power production and H&C are little known. Recently, deep geothermal energy production in some regions is confronted with a negative perception, and a special attention from some decision-makers, in terms of environmental performance, which could seriously hamper its market uptake. Media reports focus more on disadvantages than advantages. As a result, decision makers and potential investors have concerns about possible environmental impacts and risks involved in implementing geothermal projects, and social resistance often results in practical obstacles - such as significant slowdowns - to the deployment of the deep geothermal resources. The first objective of the GEOENVI project is to make sure that deep geothermal energy can play its role in Europe’s future energy supply in a sustainable way. It aims to create a robust strategy to respond environmental concerns (by environmental concerns we mean both environmental impacts and risks): • by assessing the environmental impacts and risks of geothermal projects operational or in development in Europe, and • by providing a robust framework to propose recommendations on environmental regulations to the decision-makers, an adapted methodology for assessing environment impact to the project developers, and finally • by communicating properly on environmental concerns with the general public. Secondly, GEOENVI aims at engaging with both decision-makers and geothermal market actors, to have the recommendations on regulations adopted and to see the LCA methodology implemented by geothermal stakeholders. The engagement with stakeholders includes to share knowledge by adopting an open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data approach.

Field of science

/engineering and technology/environmental engineering/energy and fuels/renewable energy/geothermal energy
/social sciences/economics and business/business and management/commerce

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

LC-SC3-RES-28-2018-2019-2020 - Market Uptake support

Call for proposal

H2020-LC-SC3-2018-RES-SingleStage
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

CSA - Coordination and support action

Coordinator

EUROPEAN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY COUNCIL

Address

2 Place Du Champ De Mars
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium

Activity type

Other

EU contribution

€ 229 071,25