Total turnaround for geothermal sector of $1.5 bn in the EU
5.5 MW Traunreut geothermal ORC plant, Bavaria/ Germany (source: Turboden)
Alexander Richter
14 Mar 2016
The geothermal sector in Europe accounts for around EUR1.3 billion in turnover and around 11,000 jobs in the European Union.
For sixteen years now, EurObserv’ER has been collecting data on European Union renewable energy sources to describe the state and thrust of the various sectors in its focus studies or barometers. The first part of this assessment is an updated and completed summary of the work published in 2015 in Systèmes Solaires (Journal de l’Éolien n° 16, Journal du Photovoltaïque n° 13 and Journal des Énergies Renouvelables n° 227, 228 and 229).
The renewable energy sector employed over one million people in Europe and created a turnover of around EUR143.6 billion in 2014, according to a new report published by EurObserv’ER, the body that monitors trends in renewable energy in Europe.
According to the report – the State of Renewable Energies in Europe – the countries with the highest amount of renewable energy jobs were Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain, with the EU’s smaller countries having the least jobs in the sector.
When it comes to turnover, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Denmark and Spain saw the highest turnover rates last year.
Wind energy was the main driver of jobs and growth in the sector overall with 12 EU countries seeing growth and over 12 GW of newly installed capacity. The sector accounts for over 324,000 jobs and in 2014 its turnover was EUR48.3 billion.
The report also said that wind energy has been the driver of investments in renewables over recent years. Between 2013 and 2014, investments in renewable energy generation projects increased significantly, mainly in wind energy.
While the market for photovoltaic energy has flattened in Europe, the sector still had a turnover of EUR16.4 billion and accounted for 120,000 jobs, according to the report. Heat pumps and biofuels came in next with turnovers of EUR13.8 billion and EUR13.4 billion respectively. Biogas, small hydro, solar thermal and geothermal all had a turnover in the range of EUR1.3 – 6.1 billion.
In the report it is specifically reported on geothermal energy, both for heat, electricity with heat pumps reported on separately.
Italy remained the country of major geothermal applications due to a good resource potential the country use for its energy sector. Virtually all growth in the electricity sector occurs in the Mediterranean country that also heads the table in terms of positive socio-economic impacts: EUR650 million and 5 500 persons employed.
With a reasonable good under- ground potential for exploiting geothermal heat, primarily in the I?le de France region and in the east of the country, France is the next biggest player, which has deep geothermal heat and power generating facilities. The sector turnover is quanti ed at EUR90 million and 1,320 jobs according to Ademe gures.
Overall employment in geothermal in the European Union was 10,770 in 2014 and the overall turnover around EUR 1.3 billion.
Source: European Commission, EU Annual Overview of Renewable Energy
