07 Nov 2022
First District Heating and Cooling Day stresses potential of geothermal energy to diversify Europe’s renewable energy resources
The EU-funded project CROWDTHERMAL and the Geothermal-DHC COST Action co-organised a transdisciplinary event during the European Geothermal Congress in Berlin to create a platform for researchers working on the interconnection between social, environmental, legal and risk mitigation aspects of geothermal energy in district heating and cooling
The First District Heating and Cooling Day was held on 20 October 2022 as an official side event of the European Geothermal Congress (EGC) in Berlin. Co-organised by the Geothermal-DHC COST action and the EU-funded CROWDTHERMAL project, the event which attracted more than 100 participants, allowed to emphasise the potential of the use of geothermal energy in district heating and cooling networks.
Four keynote speakers (Valentin Gavan from ENGIE; Tamas Medgyes from the District Heating Company of Szeged; Amel Barich from GEORG and Joao Figueira from the Technical University of Lisbon) highlighted the importance of geothermal, especially in light of the current energy crisis and the need to foster the diversification of renewable energy sources.
The afternoon session was dedicated to the presentation of the main results of the EU-funded CROWDTHERMAL project which aims at empowering citizens to participate in the development of geothermal energy projects via alternative financing methods such as crowdfunding. The project team presented a set of reports, addressing social, environmental, financial, and risk mitigation aspects of community-financed geothermal projects.
The session concluded with an introduction of the set of services CROWDTHERMAL developed for communities of citizens, geothermal project developers and local authorities. The services will assist the geothermal sector, contributing thus to an accelerated market development in Europe and supporting the European Union’s 2030 climate and energy targets as well as the REpowerEU plan, which aims at a greater strategic independence of Europe’s energy supply. The first Geothermal District Heating and Cooling Day allowed to connect researchers from different backgrounds to exchange on recent developments and prospects and jointly address present challenges and barriers for the deployment of geothermal energy supported heating and cooling networks in Europe.