Geothermal could cover a quarter of Germany's energy needs

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With the heating sector still heavily reliant on oil and gas, a new roadmap by the Fraunhofer IEG suggests that geothermal energy could cover up to one-quarter of Germany's energy needs.

Germany's new government has pledged that half of the country's heating will come from climate-neutral sources by 2030 and abundant energy sources that can be easily stored could aid significantly in this transition.

Read more: 15 EU states spend more on fossil fuel subsidies than renewables

Geothermal may be a more consistent form of energy than solar or wind as it produces energy regardless of the weather, as well as requiring little space for storage and generation. "Geothermal" refers to any source of energy generated from the ground and includes dry steam power stations and flash steam power stations.

The roadmap's authors claim as much as 300TWh of energy could be generated per year with 70GW of installed capacity - roughly one-quarter of the country's energy needs. Much of this will be generated through hydrothermal reservoirs between 400 and 5000 metres below the ground which can generate energy year-round.

Germany, along with the rest of Europe, is currently heavily reliant on natural gas for its energy needs, with the continent getting around 40% of its gas from Russia via natural gas pipelines.

"Achieving the climate neutrality of the heating market is a huge challenge and requires a whole bundle of measures", said Rolf Bracke, head of Fraunhofer IEG who helped publish the geothermal roadmap for Germany.

"Market players such as energy suppliers, industrial companies, the housing industry, the financial sector, politics, administration, trainers and municipalities need new instruments for this complex implementation task", he added.

The roadmap lays out all the necessary information on the geothermal heat supply, the versatility of the heat market, and the technological realisation of the heat transition.

In particular, it highlights fight main points:

  • Parliament and local councils should formulate clear expansion goals and deliver them with proper legislation to hasten emissions reductions.
  • Subsidies for small-and-medium-sized businesses involved in the heating sector to allow for them to handle the economic risks associated with setting up new generation infrastructure or investing in new energy sources. The report also says the federal government should increase federal funding for efficient heating networks to over €1 billion while setting up a comprehensive exploration framework to minimise discovery risks for companies.
  • A significant increase in the number of geothermal systems - "from dozens to thousands", the report claims.
  • Geothermal does not require energy imports, therefore only domestic value is gained either through generation or job creation. Workers may need to be reskilled, and the IEG estimates 5-10 new jobs will be created per MW of installed capacity.
  • Increased social awareness of the perks of geothermal energy, which requires local politics to business management and plant engineering strategies, while also increasing transparency of the systems and benefits to local populations.

Cities such as Paris and Munich have been making use of geothermal energy for years, which highlights the potential for it as a method of generating energy. 

The report states that 56% of Germany's energy demand is taken up by heating, with only 15% being "regenerative".

Hydrogen and biomass may aid in the decarbonisation of high-temperature or energy-intensive sectors such as transport or construction, the roadmap states the use of solar thermal or geothermal could help in industries operating at temperatures below 200°C.

The main advantages are its interseasonal generation and social requirements, the authors report.

Read more: German steel giant to end use of blast furnaces "by mid-2030s"

However, scaling up geothermal ambitions will come at a cost. The roadmap estimates households and private businesses will have to invest roughly €2 billion per gigawatt of installed capacity over the next decade in order to meet the government's energy goals.

However, the offset would be relatively cheap energy prices, at roughly €30 per megawatt-hour.

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