April 15 (Renewables Now) – The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) this week called on the European Commission (EC) to prepare a European strategy on geothermal energy and sustainable raw materials extraction by 2023.
In a letter to EC president Ursula von der Leyen signed by 150 businesses and industries, the organisation pushed for unlocking Europe’s “vast” amount of geothermal energy that could be a permanent source of renewable heating, cooling and power, as well as lithium and other raw materials.
It says that this resource remains underdeveloped and underlooked by EU policymakers even as the International Energy Agency and French energy agency ADEME had identified it as the most cost-effective solution for heating.
The strategy should focus among other things on identifying barriers, proposing measures to spur deployment, including heating and cooling infrastructure, and crowding-in financing to frontload a pipeline of projects that could support EU’s climate goals and the REpowerEU plan.
In March, EGEC released an action plan, saying that the EU can reduce its use of Russian gas by 3 billion cubic metres this year with the help of geothermal district heating and cooling and geothermal heat pumps, with significant potential for further gas demand reductions.
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