GEO-DH project approved: Focused on strengthening of geothermal district heating in Europe

In June 2011 we participated in the preparation of the project GEO-DH for European Commission´s (EC) funding scheme of the CIP-IEE (Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme - Intelligent Energy Europe). The project with the full title “Promote Geothermal District Heating Systems in Europe” was proposed by EGEC and other nine participants. We are happy to announce that this interesting project has been positively evaluated by the EC. Once the negotiation will be concluded, the project will start for a period of 30 months.

The project is aimed at stimulation of the use of geothermal energy sources for heating purposes. The main driver is to consequently replace the use of fossil fuels by district heating (DH) by 2020. Geothermania presents this project in four simple questions:

• Why is this project important for Europe?

The sector of Heating and cooling is an important player responsible for approximately 50% of total European final energy consumption as well as a large part of greenhouse gas emissions. District heating has a long tradition, especially in the Nordic countries and in those countries of Central and Eastern Europe with formerly centrally planned economies. In general, the use of district heating systems is stated as economically feasible and ecologically preferable for the broad introduction of low-enthalpy geothermal sources.

Many district heating systems in Europe already use renewable energy sources in their energy mix. At present around 14% of the heat for district heating in Europe is derived from renewable sources (biomass, geothermal, solar) and waste, both directly (e.g. boilers) and indirectly (e.g. co-generation). However, there is a greater potential to expand the use of renewable sources since many of the systems operating especially in Central and Eastern Europe are generally in bad conditions. Such systems operate inefficiently with cumulative heat losses in generation, transportation, distribution and end-use from 35 % to 77 %!

• What are the objectives of GEO-DH?

Worldwide, utilization of geothermal technology in DH is an efficient and environmental friendly approach. Geothermal application in DH will result in significant savings of primary energy resources and ensuring security of supply. Therefore the most important objective of the project is to significantly increase the number of geothermal DH schemes. This can be reached by encouraging district heating scheme owners to improve and modernise their systems and to increase the share of geothermal in district heating.

Another ambitious target is to identify current barriers in order to promote the best circumstances for policy makers. There are several obstacles to the development of geothermal resources, and especially geothermal DH, which are characteristic of the transition of countries in Europe, more specifically Central and Eastern Europe, such as unrealistically low energy prices, weak financial and institutional infrastructure. There is a stated the need for market price reform, new financing mechanisms, and technology transfer to promote geothermal development, as well as the importance of new pilot projects.

• How will be the aims fulfilled?

The GEO-DH consortium participants come from the following countries will be participating in this project Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Moreover, project´s activities and aims cover countries with support from EGEC members also another 14 countries. During a of 30 months, the GEO-DH project will focus on increasing the market penetration of geothermal district heating systems in several Member States, and especially in Eastern and Central Europe. This region is rich in medium and low enthalpy geothermal resources which are located in several sedimentary basins, such as Carpathian basin, Pannonian Basin and Podhale basin.

In order to identify barriers and the specifics of national situations necessary to exchange information, on costs and the market penetration, evaluating national and local regulatory framework. Legal and financial recommendations will be drafted to accelerate market penetration of this technology. The sharing of best practice and technologies among European Countries will be achieved through the arrangement of seminars focusing on audiences such as developers, municipalities and energy service companies. The targeted seminars will address issues such as evaluation of resources and widening existing resource bases, energy conversion, operation and control, connection to local power and district heating infrastructures, as well as organizational issues and other related topics.

• What is an expected impact of the GEO-DH project?

GEO-DH project aims at several ambitious results:

1. Understanding of the technologies involved within geothermal district heating and cooling
2. Awareness of the current situation and recommendations for raising regulatory market barriers
3. Improving national and local regulatory framework and increasing national market penetration of geothermal energy.
4. Transfer of best practices and examples of successful applications to national and local authorities and the public sectors of the regions
5. Training energy officers, developers and installers, on matters concerning geothermal DH technologies
6. Increasing awareness among key professional groups on the potential applications and benefits, of direct heating and cooling with geothermal energy.

In order to achieve stated goals, a number of reports will be prepared with regulatory and financial issues. In addition participants will organise seminars and workshops which will communicate the potential applications and benefits of geothermal energy. 

In conclusion, it is of extreme importance to create all the necessary boundary conditions to make sure that renewable heating and cooling from geothermal sources can be used in an optimal way. And Geothermania believes that GEO-DH project is a suitable tool for this challenge.

Engineered Geothermal System Energy - In the UK and a global perspective

In the coming days, geothermal experts from all over the world are gathering to take part in the Geothermal Symposium organised by UK developer EGS Energy. The focus is going to be on the development of engineered geothermal systems (EGS) and how it can take the sector forward in to a different league.

Over 100 participants from public organisations, Government, investors and academics are expected to meet on Tuesday 27th September in London, UK in order to discuss prospects for near future. Agenda is to provide them with an update on the progress of the geothermal industry. The content of the Symposium is divided into two main parts. The first one is dedicated to the development of EGS worldwide. The organisers managed to attract important contributors who will share their opinions and experience in the frame of EGS field. Among others, representatives of International Energy Agency (IEA), U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), stakeholders from Australia, South Korea, France and Germany will be present. The main idea is that many countries outside of the ‘ring of fire’ in the future will be able to source renewable energy from below their feet.

The second part will be related with the development of EGS in the host country – UK. Speakers are expected to present geothermal project in Cornwall, North-Eastern England projects and geothermal resources in Scotland. The UK’s geothermal resources are substantial, with Cornwall having some of Europe’s highest heatflows.  Elsewhere in the country, there are plenty of areas that exhibit the right qualities to make the use of geothermal energy quite possible but further research needs to be done to specify the optimum spots. 

There is an impressive array of projects under way: from consented developments in Cornwall to the recent announcement by the Scottish Government of funding for research there; from plans for use of geothermal in horticulture in the Isle of Wight to drilling under way in Newcastle. It is important to note that the technology is already in use elsewhere in Europe and now is the opportunity for experienced teams to assist in taking forward the sector in the UK. The likely focus of attention of the Symposium will be the issues of scaling up, sustainability and industrial partnerships.

Power from geothermal sources is large scale, despatchable, emissions free and with a small footprint on the surface. Events such as this move this renewable energy sector forward, so that it may become more and more confident in its ability to offer part of the solution to the rising demand for energy from renewable sources.

Energy Roadmap 2050: New opportunity for Europe?

In autumn 2011 is The European Commission expected to publish an Energy Roadmap. This report will follow the Roadmap for a Low-Carbon Economy by 2050 which was published earlier this year and will be focused on reductions of greenhouse gas emissions across the whole EU economy. The main aim is to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% in the next 40 years. 

That is the theory. Is it ambitious enough? Or do you think that reducing of carbon footprint is not necessary? Anyway, in the last decade there were many roadmaps which had a revolutionary content, but only few of their aims were fulfilled. The aims of these roadmaps were excellent, based mainly on reduction of greenhouse gases, increase of energy efficiency and development of public transport. Some marginal improvements have been achieved, but there is no crucial impact in sight. Before the final development of the report, another worrying has appeared. Poland, which has undertook a presidency of the Council of the European Union, covers almost 90% of its electricity demand by coal. It is unlikely to expect that during this presidency will be promoted higher emission reduction targets or stricter regulations.

So, is there any possibility that this report will be successful and European energy sector will finally become more sustainable? Is it possible to connect this effort with energy security and competitiveness? Geothermania hopes it would be possible, but some crucial changes are needed. It is necessary to hear the voice of organisations with focus on renewable research and development (R&D). Without significant improvements in this segment, it is impossible to reach the substitution of fossil fuels. Few days ago, European geothermal, hydropower and biomass authorities published their Position paper with the subtitle “Flexible renewable resources will be the key for an optimal electricity mix”. These energy sources are mentioned as flexible and may offer several advantages:

•  they deliver power 24 hours a day, throughout the year 
• they are available all over Europe with minor land use
• they are local resources, creating local employment
• they can be modulated according to type of resources, to size and nature of equipment, and in order to meet demands 
• they supply base-load energy with a load factor higher than 60% 

In conclusion, only energy sources with high load factor are able to substitute coal and nuclear as base-load energy source. The geothermal, hydropower and biomass industry are flexible renewables which can meet at least 45% of the European Global Electricity consumption in 2050. That is the assumption which must be emphasized in such roadmaps to reach significant progress.

Indonesians - no.1 geothermal fans

After a couple of months, we offer you actual statistics of our Geothermania‘s Facebook site.

When we compared it with previous similar post, we found out several surprising facts. At the end of the year 2009, the dominant age and gender category was a group of ladies from 25 to 34 years (40%). However, the number of our male fans has risen and reaches almost 70% of all our fans. It means that geothermal energy is attractive not only for women but mostly for men. For your interest, here is the screenshot referring to statistics above:

Statistics of geographical features of our fans offer also some interesting issues. Almost 30% of our fans come from Indonesia. There is no wonder because this Asian country has unique geothermal features and Indonesians have strong environmental awareness. Furthermore, the same options are characterized for following countries in the chart: Slovakia, Philippines and United States. Similar order has also chart of cities where the leader city is Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. More than half of our fans speaks English (US+UK):

We are proud of the fact that we offer geothermal topics for people round the world and we hope our articles will be more and more interesting.

Research of supercritical water may bring geothermal revolution

In recent years, a large effort has been done to utilize a heat from the earth. Geothermal companies all over the world try to make another step to this goal. They get started an intensive research of supercritical fluids, mainly supercritical water (SCW).

SCW is a specific state of water which is very hot and under so much pressure that it exists somewhere between water and steam.  The boundary of this state are conditions with temperature higher than 374°C (705°F) and pressures over 22.1 MPa. SCW has several interesting features; its main disadvantage is the fact that it is very corrosive. On the other hand, advantages can be utilized in several industry segments.

Nowadays the most famous attempt to utilize the supercritical water as an energy source is the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP). The approach in this case is simple; developers are trying to drill a well two miles deep into the active Volcano crater, Krafla and that way to reach 400-600°C hot supercritical hydrous fluid at a rifted plate margin. When this fluid hits the surface, it will have much more energy than fluid in conventional thermal cycles. The result is radical increase of power output from one geothermal well. It is necessary to mention that geothermal conditions in Iceland are extraordinary and there are just a few other locations in the world with similar opportunities. More detailed information you can find on IDDP.

Therefore, for the utilization of this phenomenon is required an improvement of current drilling methods for accessing the geothermal reservoirs with supercritical conditions. On the other hand, SCW could be an effective support during the process of drilling. Its aggressive and corrosive nature can are suitable for increase of the disintegration process. Naturally, the drilling tool with high corrosion resistance is required. This process is mainly suitable for drilling techniques based on thermal approach, such as plasma, which offer high heat flow required for supercritical conditions. 

SCW could be utilized not only in geothermal segment, but according to recent research, using it in the process of material or waste disintegration is very promising. We hope that research of the SCW in all mentioned segments will continue and bring sufficient results.

Geothermal ERA-NET: The chance for strengthen geothermal cooperation activities in Europe

Igor Kocis is a member of the Board at AGEO - Agency for Geothermal Power Engineering and from this position he became the Representative of the Slovak Republic in the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating & Cooling (RHC-Platform). During last weeks he took a part in the proposal preparation phase of new European Reseach Area ERA-NET partnership project focused on utilization of geothermal energy.

Igor Kocis at the project preparation meeting

Geothermania prepared a short interview with Igor about Geothermal ERA-NET - project aimed to deepen the cooperation of national program owners and administrators and thus to be an enabler for the integration of national research and development (R&D) agendas into a coherent European geothermal R&D program.

• Geothermal energy contributes not only to the overall goals of the European Action Plan (30% CO2 reduction, 20% renewables), but may also integrate discontinuous renewable energies like solar or wind with its base load capacity. Igor, let's summarize, what are the goals of Geothermal ERA-NET and what would fans of geothermal energy expect from this project?

European Action Plan approved by European Commission has many ambitious aims such as 30% CO2 reduction, 20% energy savings or 20% energy from renewables. Countries participating in this Geothermal ERA-NET were chosen on the basis of their ambitions to include geothermal energy into these aims of greenhouse gases reduction. The main goal will be creating a framework for partnership of geothermal subjects such as European national program owners. The Geothermal ERA-NET is not only focused on the utilization of shallow geothermal energy for direct heating, but also from high enthalpy sources. It is targeted on technical, but mainly non-technical (regulatory, institutional, social) issues.

• Could you tell us something more about functional mechanisms of Geothermal ERA-NET? Why do you think this project will be successful?

The Geothermal ERA-NET scheme has several functional mechanisms including tools for cooperation and integration of geothermal research funding agencies in European countries. The whole project is divided into seven workpackages which are aimed to secure full implementation of project’s goals, among them creating of the European Geothermal Database, negotiations with stakeholders or transnational mobilities.

But the most significant impact of the project is the joint programming of the national activities. Unfortunately, the centralized financial support from the Brussels to the geothermal energy is low. Thus we need to coordinate and join our relatively isolated national activities and grant schemes to prove the global competitiveness of the European research and innovative segments. I think skilful participants and clear project aims guarantee successful results of this project.

• Slovakia is in Geothermal ERA-NET represented by Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport. What other institutions participate in the consortium?

The Geothermal ERA-NET consortium has ten members from nine different countries. The coordinator of the whole project is the Icelandic National Energy Authority. Participating organizations have their focused mainly in environmental, energy efficiency or research issues such as Swiss Federal Office of Energy or The National Research Council of Italy.

• Countries participating in this project have extra-ordinary geothermal conditions. Do you think that Slovakia has sufficient potential to utilize geothermal energy in commercial scale? In general, how would you characterize utilization of renewable sources in Slovakia?

You are right that Slovakia has excellent geothermal conditions above European average but there is no systematic utilization of this renewable energy source. Apart from few district heating projects and one hydrothermal power plant under construction there are not larger geothermal activities yet. Current state in other renewables is different; the support for wind or solar energy is more prominent even though their effective load factor is very low. In my opinion, radical change in thinking of official authorities is necessary for utilization of geothermal energy in larger commercial scale.

• Do you think that Slovakia will reach the overall goals of the European Union in producing 20% of its electricity from renewable sources until 2020? What part can take geothermal energy in this ambitious plan?

This plan is really very ambitious but without conceptual support to new renewable technologies there is no chance to be successful.  R&D programs in EU should be granted for viable projects which can bring real results into power engineering sector in next 5 years. Only base load energy which need not be backed up by fossil fuels plants can bring us secure and sustainable energy. The best one which meets these requirements is geothermal energy and it is the reason why more attention should be paid to the utilization of this renewable energy source.