GEOFAR/ EU-funded project on Geothermal Finance and Awareness in Europe project

Alexander Richter 12 Aug 2009

A few weeks ago I learned about an interesting project by the EU, GEOFAR. The project is aimed “to unveil the non technical difficulties and barriers which hinder the initial stages of geothermal energy projects and are responsible for the lack of this kind of investments in Europe.” Quite a task, but the outcome of this project will be indeed quite interesting.

An interesting early report on “Financial instruments for the exploitation of geothermal energy” (Link at the bottom of the page, Rödl & Partner was the author of this report) can be found on the project’s website and is quite a good document for anyone interested in financing geothermal projects in Europe.

Here a description of the project from the official website: “The EU-funded project GEOFAR – Geothermal Finance and Awareness in European Regions, which deals with the application and promotion of geothermal energy in Europe, was officially launched on September 1, 2008.

GEOFAR is being carried out within the framework of EU’s “Intelligent Energy Europe” (IEE) program, which is part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Program. The project GEOFAR aims to unveil the non technical difficulties and barriers which hinder the initial stages of geothermal energy projects and are responsible for the lack of this kind of investments in Europe. One of the main goals of GEOFAR is to propose workable solutions and to raise awareness on geothermal energy among decision makers, especially at regional level, in order to help boost new investments.

Although many countries in Europe have a great geothermal potential and latest technological innovations now permit a much more efficient use of geothermal energy, the exploitation of this potential is still inadequate. This is mainly due to a lack of information among decision makers and investors, but also because of inappropriate funding schemes. GEOFAR develops and proposes appropriate and innovative financing and funding schemes, raises awareness and disseminates knowledge and information among the different target groups.

GEOFAR comprises a consortium of 8 European institutes and companies from 5 different European Union countries. The 8 partners include: Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (Greece), Instituto Geologico y Minero de Espana (Spain), Institute of Energy for South East Europe (Greece), ARENA (Portugal), Rödl & Partner (Germany), Energo Group (Greece), BRGM (France) and Erlangen AG (Project Coordinator, Germany).

The GEOFAR project will be divided in two parts. The first part will include the analysis, the findings and descriptions of the technologies and financing methods, while the second one will deal with information dissemination. In the first part the expected results will consist of several reports on geothermal activities in selected countries, case studies, proposals for financial instruments, fact sheets about innovative geothermal technologies and the main outcome, financial schemes validated by experts. The second part, which is related to dissemination activity, will include the internet site, a video documentary film, press announcements, the publication of a quarterly newsletter and the regular updating of the GEOFAR website. Furthermore, a series of awareness seminars will be organized in Lisbon, Madrid, Sofia, Budapest and Bratislava. A major conference will be held in Athens where the project participants will announce the final results and conclusions of GEOFAR and other relevant work by geothermal experts and companies will be presented. With this broad dissemination GEOFAR aims at updating on a regular basis the various target groups in the different European countries.

Source and details about the project: GEOFAR – The GEOFAR Project website