The EC has just granted €2.3 billion to 43 gas and electricity projects, under the Economic Recovery Package. Back in December, it also approved a series of offshore wind and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects that will receive over €1.5 billion from the EU's economic recovery fund. The budget for energy projects (€3.98 billion) is now 97% committed.

Seeing an opportunity to use this unspent money, the EGEC has now called on the EC to earmark these remaining funds for the creation of a “European Geothermal Risk Insurance Scheme”.

The EGEC has released a communiqué requesting that the unspent funds be channelled into the geothermal sector, claiming that “renewables in general (with the exception of wind), and geothermal in particular, were ignored” in the Commission’s €5 billion investment package designed to stimulate the EU’s economy in the current recession, despite a substantial element of this package being dedicated to energy related projects.

The EGEC highlights that geothermal energy is a renewable energy source available anywhere in the EU, and at anytime, for electricity and heating and cooling, and “will be a major energy supplier in our future, able to provide up to 20% of our energy needs by 2050”.

The EGEC also suggests that as this Economic Recovery Plan granted the large majority of its financing to Member States from Northern, Western and Southern Europe, using the remaining funds to boost geothermal energy use would lead to “a geographical balance” in the use of funds, since Central and Eastern Europe especially have a huge geothermal potential.

European Geothermal Risk Insurance Scheme

The EGEC argues that by creating this European Geothermal Risk Insurance Scheme, “the EU will remove one of the main barriers for geothermal development in Europe and in particular in Eastern Europe: the mitigation of the drilling risk”.

This geological risk concerns the possibility of failure of having, after drilling, insufficient production and/or temperature characteristics rendering the operation unprofitable. Risk coverage schemes aim at the reimbursement of a certain percentage of the investments. Governmental risk mitigation schemes for geothermal already exist in France, Switzerland, Germany and The Netherlands.

“A scheme at European level is crucial and is lacking. It could be developed in cooperation with the European Investment Bank,” says the EGEC.

For additional information:

European Geothermal Energy Council

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