Swiss project Alpine Geothermal Power Production receives state risk insurance
Thermal Spa and Bath at Lavey-les-Bains, Vaud, Switzerland (source: flickr/ Kraken_Boy, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
23 Sep 2011
Swiss Alpine Geothermal Power Production project (AGEPP) announces it has received the first federal risk insurance (Swissgrid) for its deep geothermal project at Lavey-les-Bains, and expects drilling to start in the second quarter of 2012.
In a release early this week, the Swiss Alpine Geothermal Power Production project (AGEPP) announces it has received the first federal risk insurance (Swissgrid) for deep geothermal projects. With this milestone, the project expects to enter its realisation phase with the first well to be drilled in the second quarter of 2012.
The decision of Swissgrid was communicated last week. With the application of the project for the insurance in July 2010, the decision now is a first and an important milestone to realize the AGEPP project in Lavey-les-Bains in the Kanton Vaud in Switzerland.
The project team of AGEPP, as well as the partners are aware of the pioneering role of the project and are proud to have achieved this important milestone not only for the project but for geothermal power development in Switzerland.
The decision was preceeded by a comprehensive and thorough investigation team accompanied by a well experienced team of experts. Given that this application was the first project seeking the risk insurance by SwissGrid, the evaluation process took about one year, as BFE, Swissgrid and the team of experts wanted to make sure that all defined processes follow the necessary regulations, allows for no distortion and can be applied to all other future applications.
To help the establishment of geothermal power development in Switzerland, the Federal state has established the federal risk insurance within the Energy Act of 26.6. 1998 (ENG, SR 730.0 – Art. 15a) and in the Energy Regulation of 7.12.1998 (EnV, SR 730.1 – Art 17a ff).
The Risk insurance will cover up to 50% of the exploration costs, in the case of the insured project nor reaching power generation targets. This is supposed to help stimulate investor interest by decreasing the element of risk involved and increase the number of good projects.
The pilot project Alpine Geothermal Power Production (AGEPP) is expected to start drilling its first 3,200 m deep well in the second quarter of 2012. The chosen drill site is in proximity to one of the hottest thermal springs in Switzerland and close to two water wells of 200 and 600 m depth that have been supplying 500,000 cubic meters of 67 centigrades hot water to the Thermal Bath Lavey-les-Bains for the last 20 years.
The target of the project is to derive 110 centigrade hot water with a rate of 40 litres per second to generate power for 600 households and heating for 1,200 household and regional industrial players. Beyond that the project aims at secure the supply of the thermal bath for decades and the excess heat to be used for fish aquaculture or greenhouses.
The project partners for the project are SI-REN AG (renewable energy) – City of Lausanne, EOS-Holding AG, Romande Energie AG, CESLA AG (Thermal water of Lavey) – Canton Vaud, Municipality of St. Maurice, Municipality of Lavey-Morcles and the canton Wallis.
The project has received start-up funding by the federal state of Switzerland.
Details about the project are available via the project leader Dr. Pascal Vinard (pascal.vinard@si-ren.ch)
Source: Release by Project (in German)
