“Things must change if Europe is to reach its energy decarbonisation objective, and that will not be possible without a substantial contribution from geothermal energy,” says EGEC President Dr Burkhard Sanner.

“Providing a renewable base load, geothermal energy does not have external costs such as storage, grid infrastructure or waste management. Conventional geothermal power is already a most competitive energy source, but only possible in certain regions.

“EGS, a breakthrough technology successfully demonstrate, will allow a geothermal development anywhere in Europe. EGS (short for ‘Enhanced Geothermal Systems’) will become competitive within a few more years.

“Geothermal will be a key player in an optimal energy mix,” Sanner concludes.

EGEC calls on national governments and European institutions to:

• Invest in R&D to deploy EGS and bring down the cost of EGS plants;
• Adopt a feed-in tariff suitable for EGS development; and
• Create a European Risk Insurance Scheme to mitigate the geological risk.