Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

The cities of Munich and Vienna partner on sustainable and climate friendly energy sources with a particularly look at geothermal for heating.

The City of Amsterdam, led by mayor Femke Halsema, continues with the climate change combat. In order to be more successful, they are getting rid of the fossil fuel natural gas and want to replace it with other heat source such as geothermal energy – the heat from the deep layers of the earth (depth …

Large-scale geothermal energy has long been constrained to volcanic areas where heat can easily be captured and turned into electricity. Today, breakthroughs in drilling techniques are opening new horizons for the technology, offering the prospect of “geothermal anywhere”.

With a well drilled for oil exploration, the city of Erding in Bavaria/ Germany started its utilisation of geothermal energy first for a thermal spa and later for wider district heating in the city with great impact on cut in CO2 emissions.

Croatia’s Geo Power Zagocha intends to build 20 MW geothermal power plant in the Slatina region, according to an application submitted to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy.

The plant will use Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system to produce electricity, which will be delivered to the distribution network of HEP ODS, Croatia’s state power grid operator, reads the application for determining the need for an environmental impact assessment.

A growing number of cities in Europe are betting on geothermal to provide households with clean heating, but the little-known renewable energy source will need more attention from Brussels in order to scale up.

Since 2003, Munich features among the European cities pioneering the deployment of geothermal energy.

The local utility, Stadtwerke München (SWM), already operates five geothermal plants. And in its ‘Vision 2040’ strategy, the city outlined plans to continue tapping into deep geothermal with a view to provide 100% renewable heating to residents by 2040.

About 560,000 households could be powered by geothermal energy alone in two decades, the utility told German newspaper SZ.

Le projet, présenté comme une première française pour la géothermie de haute température, devait, à terme, alimenter de 15 000 à 20 000 logements en électricité, et 26 000 en chaleur directe. Fonroche, qui a investi près de 100 millions d’euros dans ce projet, annonçait encore courant novembre son souhait de pouvoir mettre en route la centrale dès 2021.

In the ongoing quest to combat climate change, new forms of carbon-neutral, environmentally friendly energy sources are being prioritised by the European Commission, especially following the unveiling of its Green Deal initiative. Geothermal energy is one such promising avenue, and in this CORDIS Results Pack we showcase the very latest innovative EU-funded research on both deep and shallow geothermal energy that will allow for a faster, wider and more efficient roll-out of this potentially game-changing alternative energy source.

When Plymouth City Council looked at heating and cooling buildings more efficiently, it found the area’s geology offered a source of energy that enabled it to use the latest heat network technology. Andy Pearson reports

Bulgaria is preparing to launch its Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Energy Security Program, with an estimated EUR 33 million budget to finance street lighting, geothermal and hydropower utilization, energy efficiency in buildings, and other projects, the Ministry of Energy has said on its website.