TNW
Summary
In the wooded hills south of Munich, Germany, engineers are drilling 8 km down in a bid to harvest limitless clean energy from Earth’s molten, radioactive core. The project could offer a blueprint for cost-effective geothermal energy extraction, helping Europe power cities, heat homes, and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
Across Europe, politicians are slowly warming up to the potential of geothermal.
France plans to double geothermal production by 2028. The Netherlands wants to nearly triple output by 2030, mainly to warm its greenhouses. Germany aims to boost geothermal heating tenfold by 2030, to 10 terawatt-hours a year.
Most of this new heat will go into homes, not power plants. That’s because district heating systems and radiator-based infrastructure already exist in much of Europe. Heat also requires lower temperatures than electricity, making it cheaper to produce. Heating makes up half of the EU’s total energy consumption and about 30% of its CO2 emissions.
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#News#GeothermalandGeo-Exchange#DistrictHeating