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France publishes action plan to accelerate geothermal development

The Government of France has published a six-point action plan to accelerate the development of the country’s shallow and deep geothermal facilities.

The French Government thru Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher has released a document entitled “Geothermal energy : an action plan to accelerate,” a national action plan that aims to make France a leader in geothermal energy with the ultimate goal of producing enough geothermal heat in 15 to 20 years to save 100 TWh/year of gas and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The official document (in French) can be accessed via this link.

In France, heat represents around half of the final energy consumptions and is still mainly produced by fossil fuels. In 2021, renewable energies accounted for 24% gross of the final consumption of energy used for heating and cooling. Geothermal solutions represented only 1% of the final heat consumption, or around 6 TWh of renewable geothermal heat.

In this context, the Government of France has launched the action plan for the development of surface and deep geothermal energy in metropolitan France. The action plan will mobilize the Ecological Transition Agency (ADEME), the Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM), the concerned professional federations, and State services at the national and regional levels.

The status of surface and deep geothermal in France

The report provides an overview of surface and deep geothermal installations in France while also setting goals for each sub-field.

In France, surface geothermal installations represents two-thirds of the heat produced by geothermal energy. Despite the legislative measures put in place in recent years, the industry is still struggling to take off with higher investment costs identified as one of the limitations. In this context, the multi-annual energy program has set a target of 4.6 TWh of final consumption of renewable heat from geothermal heat pump in 2023 and an increased goal of 5 to 7 TWh by 2028.

Deep geothermal energy accounts for 78 installations for urban heating network in operation as of the end of 2022 – 58 in Île-de-France, 15 in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, 3 in Occitanie in the Aquitane, 1 in Bas-Rhin, and 1 in Centre-Val de Loire in the Paris basin. The multi-annual energy program sets a target of 2.9 TWh of final consumption of heat from deep geothermal energy in 2023 and a goal of 4 to 5.2 TWh in 2028.

About 30 deep geothermal projects have been identified by the AFPG for 2030. The main challenge for deep geothermal is the identification of lesser-known or under-exploited deep aquifers that can host geothermal resources.

Production of heat from geothermal energy in heating networks in France (source: Fedene/SNCU / adapted from Ministere de la Transition Energetique)

Six-point action plan

The action plan identifies six goals or strategies to achieve the overall objectives, three each for surface geothermal and deep geothermal.

SURFACE GEOTHERMAL

DEEP GEOTHERMAL

Source: Ministère de la Transition énergétique

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