Report shows incremental rise of geothermal in Europe
Date: 04/09/2017The European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) has produced its latest report on the health of the sector.
The 6th edition of the report shows that over the last five years (2012-2016), the use of geothermal energy, particularly for heat, has slowly but steadily increased across Europe.
According to the report, there are presently more than 100 geothermal plants , with an installed capacity that amounted to around 2.5 GW in 2016 (of which 1 GW is in the EU), producing some 15 TWh of electrical power every year.
It is believed that the installed capacity on the continent will grow to around 3 GW in 2020 with this major increase linked to the rapid growth of the Turkish market.
Geothermal district heating is forecast for rapid expansion in coming years. Between 2012 and 2016, 51 new plants have entered into operation (all in the EU), which represents an average annual growth of 10%. The total installed capacity in Europe is now approximately 4.9 GWth with the main markets for future years being France, Netherlands, Germany, and Hungary.
The shallow geothermal market is the largest market by far. Yet the installation growth rate is declining; a capacity of more than 20 GWth was achieved at the end of 2015, distributed in over more than 1.7 million installations in Europe.
“While geothermal energy is on its way to becoming a key player in Europe, there is a need for long-term financial and regulatory stability”, said EGEC President Ruggero Bertani. “The EU legislative proposals currently on the table in Brussels do not provide sufficiently strong incentives to increase the share of the most efficient renewable heating and cooling technologies and to develop the next generation of flexible renewable electricity,” he added.”
The key findings of the report can be downloaded at www.egec.org.
Source: Decentralised Energy