The GeoSmart project, an initiative funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, officially concluded on 30 September. The project brought together a consortium of 19 partners from across Europe to work collaboratively to develop and demonstrate innovative geothermal solutions. It has successfully developed technologies, such as the GeoSmart flexible power plant, that can become highly adaptable energy providers while maintaining baseload power sources. Coinciding with this milestone, the consortium also announced the release of a comprehensive assessment, ‘Techno-economic Study of European Geothermal Power’, offering critical insights into the future of geothermal energy in Europe.
As part of the EU’s continued commitment to sustainable energy, the European Electricity Market Design (EMD) has called on member states to support geothermal electricity. This support comes at a crucial time, as geothermal energy was once again identified in 2023 as the best baseload power source, achieving a load factor exceeding 80%. Geothermal systems can now ramp up or down between 100% and 20% power output in just 15 seconds, providing unmatched flexibility in balancing fluctuating energy demands. New technologies developed by the GeoSmart project have facilitated further deployment of geothermal power and heat plants to generate flexible power.
The potential of geothermal energy, with its ability to meet both baseload and flexible energy needs, is believed to offer a major opportunity to reduce by more than 10% grid infrastructure costs requirements across the EU. This potential is supported by a vision to deploy 250 GW of geothermal capacity across Europe by 2040.
