2024 call for proposals for geothermal projects announced by CETPartnership

CETPartnership Joint Call 2024 (source: CETPartnership)

Carlo Cariaga 23 Oct 2024

The Clean Energy Technologies Partnership (CETPartnership) has announced Joint Call 2024 for research, development, and innovation (RDI) strategies related to accelerating the clean energy transition. As usual, a module on “Geothermal Energy Technologies” is part of this year’s call for proposals.

The deadline for pre-proposal submission for this year’s joint call will be on the 21st of November 2024. Click here for the documents and forms relevant to this Joint Call.

The CETPartnership is an initiative co-funded by the European Union that brings together public and private stakeholders in the research and innovation ecosystems, from European and non-European countries and regions. A similar joint call which also included geothermal technologies was done last year.

Scope of the joint call

Module CM 2024-07 on Geothermal Energy Technologies calls for projects within the scope of the following:

• Geothermal energy for heating and cooling
• Geothermal energy for power generation
• Underground thermal energy storage
• Geothermal energy with co-production of minerals

The call supports both pilot and demonstration projects, as well as applied research and development projects.

1. Pilot and demo projects (achieving TRL7, 8 or 9 after project completion) must be realised in real-life operation environments and enable at least one of the following compared to state-of-the-art today:
   • cost reduction
   • increase in competitive market opportunities
   • increase in environmental protection
   • projects could also address innovations significantly impacting societal acceptability, safety, and/or circularity

2. Applied research and development projects (achieving TRL4, 5 or 6 after project completion) must have a valid proof-of-concept before starting, typically work in a laboratory or similar setting and address at least one of the following compared to state-of-the-art today:
   • significant cost reduction
   • significant increase in competitive market opportunities
   • significant increase in environmental protection and/or reduction risks associated with development or operation of a geothermal installation
   • better tools and methodologies
   • project output could also significantly impact societal acceptability, knowledge development, experience sharing, safety, and/or circularity

The Call Module applies to all geological depth levels.

Proposals are expected to explain their contribution to the objectives of this Call Module and quantify this contribution to the extent that this is possible. They are also encouraged to consider cross-cutting issues such as economic modelling, social aspects, environmental concerns, etc. However, applicants must ensure that their proposed work meets national funding rules. Proposals that exclusively consider research on sustainability or social acceptance cannot be funded.

Target topics

Successful projects should address one or more of the three topics as shown in the vertical bars on the figure below, which cover all stages in the development cycle of a secure, sustainable, competitive, and affordable geothermal installation. The horizontal bars indicate the cross-cutting, non-technological dimensions that are relevant for geothermal energy technologies.

Successful projects in this Call Module should contribute to one or more relevant cross-cutting, nontechnological dimensions. A close interconnection between sources and their temperature level, conversion and distribution technologies, flexibility for the energy system and end-user requirements should be sought for heating and thermal storage operations.

Projects should demonstrate their market relevance and potential impact. Proposals are encouraged to describe how the project will support the energy transition with a view on circularity, resource efficiency and recovery, recycling, and substitution of critical raw materials. Projects that aim at technologies with little or no critical raw materials78 may identify this as a project quality in their project plan.

Expected impact

Projects funded in this Call Module should improve business cases and/or increase the competitive market opportunities and/or improve tools and methodologies and/or environmental protection, social acceptability, strategic knowledge, safety and/or circularity for geothermal energy. The projects’ results must emphasise market-driven innovation activities, aimed to be ready for large-scale implementation around 2030. However, projects may include lower TRLs depending on national funding rules.

Project outcomes are expected to help accelerate and implement geothermal energy solutions. Projects can also focus on bringing upcoming technologies to a level of validation in a relevant environment or integrating their activities into already viable and ongoing demonstration or piloting projects.

Source: CETPartnership

Carlo Cariaga

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