Geothermal as heating and cooling asset for Switzerland – Swiss Federal Office of Energy
Map - deep geothermal projects, Switzerland (source: map.geo.admin.ch)
Alexander Richter
22 Nov 2018
A recent editorial, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy describes "Geothermal energy is THE national resource for heating and cooling par excellence, respectful of the climate and the environment" for Switzerland.
In an editorial in its “Géologie-news (Geology News), Gunter Siddiqi, Energy Researcher at the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) shares his office’s view on geothermal energy.
“Geothermal energy is THE national resource for heating and cooling par excellence, respectful of the climate and the environment; it is used both for the storage of energy and for the supply of electric power. Geothermal energy is an asset for Switzerland, according to the 2015 TA-SWISS study. The total revision of the energy law decided by Parliament and the people represents a milestone for Switzerland’s Energy Strategy 2050.
In addition, the Parliament has been far-sighted about the use of geothermal energy by instructing the federal administration to explore the Swiss basement in collaboration with industry, research and innovation, always with respect expectations of society.Through exploration, geothermal energy contributes to lower greenhouse gas emissions, security of supply and the sustainability of our energy system.
“Know where”: the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo)’s vision takes shape with geothermal exploration in Switzerland! swisstopo has made an important first step with the GeoTherm project: this information system collects and processes geological data from deep underground and makes them usable. What was once a pile of facts and observations is made available systematically by GeoTherm.
For the user, the question “Where?” Becomes more concrete: where are geothermal drilling recommended? Where is the industry most likely to detect and connect these resources to transform them into heat, cooling or electricity, or to store them, before offering them to its customers? Now project managers – whether in Valais, the cantons of Vaud, Geneva, Friborg and Berne, Jura, Aargau, Thurgau or Graubünden – can all not only use existing data but also give their own data to swisstopo for a sustainable release. swisstopo puts itself at the service of Switzerland by developing and managing GeoTherm. Now, it’s about feeding GeoTherm over the next few years and decades and using it!”
The GeoTherm project is dedicated to deep geothermal energy (> 500 m), with the main goals of the project being:
- The development of a national database related to deep geothermal energy
- Cartographic representation on the federal portal map.geo.admin.ch geodata from this database
- Sustainable provision and download free non-confidential data.
The GeoTherm project started in January 2016 and will end at the end of the year 2018. This article presents the fruit of these three years of work as well as the developments future of this information system for geothermal energy deep in Switzerland.
In the newsletter (available here), the Information System for Geothermal Eneryg in Switzerland (GeoTherm) is described in detail.
Gunter Siddiqi, specialist geothermal research – Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) – (Editorial published in the geology-news of Swisstopo )
