European Union:

2014 JRC Geothermal Energy Status Report - Joint Research Center of the European Commission

This is the first edition of an annual report with which the Institute for Energy and Transport contributes to the general knowledge about the geothermal energy sector, its technology and economics with a focus on the European Union.

Due to the limited size of hydrothermal resources, the market share of geothermal power in Europe is small (0.2 %). Large scale deployment of geothermal power production requires the demonstration of successful EGS projects extracting heat from reservoirs constituting a variety of geological conditions.

An adequate management of deep engineered reservoirs and highly efficient thermal transfer from the rocks has to be demonstrated. The drilling technology to reach these reservoirs has to become cheaper. Then, the geological risk associated with each project will minimize, the EGS capital and operation expenditure will decrease and possibilities to enter new areas expand.

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