The contribution of geothermal energy is a key factor to the successful achievement of the objectives of the European Commission concerning the development of renewable and sustainable energy. The European Commission support for geothermal energy research has been constant since the end of the eighties and has significantly increased in the 6th Framework Program as several projects are directly related to the development of EGS (Schuppers, 2006). The ENGINE project (ENhanced Geothermal Innovative Network for Europe) is a Co‑ordination Action that started in November 2005. Its main objective is to co-ordinate present Research and Development initiatives for Unconventional Geothermal Resources and in particular Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), ranging from the resource investigation and assessment stage through to exploitation monitoring. Thirty five partners are involved in ENGINE, representing 15 European Countries plus Mexico, El Salvador and Philippines. By mid-term, the project has organised 2 conferences and 3 specialised workshops. Materials available on the web site http://engine.brgm.fr already show the work that has been completed revealing a strong motivation of the scientific community for updating the framework of activities, preparing a Best Practice Handbook and defining new ambitious research projects.

The possible contribution of the ENGINE coordination action to the definition of new R&D challenges and of an international prospective will become a major objective of all partners within the next months. Since the project started, there has been a renewed interest for geothermal resources of deep origin that ENGINE has accompanied during its conferences and workshops. There is a growing interest of industry and investors worldwide for EGS, marked by a “heat rush” in Australia and Germany. Private companies and research institutes have invested in new rigs for deep drilling, new data acquisition including 3D seismics and deep drilling are planned in the Rhine Graben and in the Alpine foreland Molasse while a pilot plant is expected in 2008 in Australia. This rush is linked, among other causes, to the expected development of renewable energies as an alternative to fossil and nuclear energies and to the dynamism of private investors. Elsewhere, after several years of drastically reduced budget, the US Department of Energy has been funded again in 2007 and has decided to support grants for electric power generation using geothermal energy co-produced with oil and/or gas wells. Several private initiatives are in progress following the report of the MIT panel of experts and signs of interest of the industry are more and more visible. It is worth to underline that most of these projects refer to the Soultz-sous-Forêts experiment, the European EGS reference site, and to stimulation technologies of natural reservoirs. In this sense, ENGINE falls at the right moment, being designed to coordinate initiatives related to the development of non-conventional geothermal resources. High-temperature geothermal resources exploration is also very active in Tuscany in Italy, where 3D seismics has been recently performed by ENEL and has provided a 100% success for exploration wells. In Iceland, the aluminium industry has new power requirement that justifies a full-time use of deep drilling facilities. This panorama must be completed by referring to the reappraisal of activities for developing district heating from medium-enthalpy resources of the Paris basin as well as storage of heat within well-known geothermal aquifers.

This renewed interest for geothermal resources of deep origin creates a favourable context for preparing new ambitious R&D projects for which ENGINE can play a significant role.

-    ENGINE, along with other coordinating initiatives from IEA-GIA, MIT expert panels, IGA or EGEC… contributes to the construction of an international R&D strategy by consolidating the available information systems and defining best practices from available experiences.

-    There is a need for a R&D task force for defining innovative research projects resulting from the identification of bottlenecks and of a prioritisation of research needs. Among expected spin-off projects, high temperature application for the use of geothermal energy, and in particular the use of fluids under supercritical phase, will require innovative practical high temperature electronics design and new implementation approaches.

-    There is a need for a political exchange platform, i.e. an appropriate consortium joining R&D institutes and private investors. This consortium, that could be a European Economic Interest Group, should be in charge of promoting past and on-going experiences by making them visible and reproducible. It should also act in order to help to the design of shared risk exploration projects, enhance market access for geothermal innovative technologies and foster incentive policies to favour energy production from geothermal sources. The ENGINE stakeholder committee represents a first attempt to build such a political platform and could help for the creation of a legal entity in charge of these tasks.

From these statements, which new R&D challenges and international prospective can we formulate? The R&D task force must propose within the next months spin-off projects that should receive the support of stakeholders, decision makers and private investors and conduct to the design of an European geothermal drilling program in order to evaluate how EGS can provide continuous base load-power for Europe. Such program, that could consist of several tenths of deep geothermal wells, and involve extensive geophysical surveys, could then be realised during the next 15 years and provide a complete reassessment of the geological and geophysical infrastructure of Europe that will be profitable to all matters concerning the management of the underground (CO2 storage, long term monitoring of georesources, decision-support for conflict of interest…). Such ambitious program requires a clear understanding of the expected benefit of both the scientific community and stakeholders as well of a political support of decision makers on such long term issue.

Bibliography

Asmundsson, R.: HIgh Temperature Instruments for supercritical geothermal reservoir characterization and exploitation. From Huenges E. & Ledru P. (eds.), Proceedings of the ENGINE Mid-Term Conference, 9-12 January 2007, Potsdam, Germany. ISBN 978-2-7159-2987-6. Orleans, BRGM Editions, Collection Actes/Proceedings (2007), 52.

Bruhn, D.: Rising open questions on investigation of Enhanced Geothermal Systems, as addressed by the I-GET project. From Ledru P. & Genter A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Engine Launching Conference, 12-15 February 2006, Orleans, France. ISBN 978-2-7159-0978-6. Orleans, BRGM Editions, Collection Actes/Proceedings (2006), 37.

Fritsch, D., and Gerard, A.: Current status of the EGS Soultz project: main achievements, results and targets. From Ledru P. & Genter A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Engine Launching Conference, 12-15 February 2006, Orleans, France. ISBN 978-2-7159-0978-6. Orleans, BRGM Editions, Collection Actes/Proceedings (2006), 21-23.

Hopkirk, R., and Haring, M.: The Swiss Deep Heat Mining programme: activities and perspectives. From Ledru P. & Genter A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Engine Launching Conference, 12-15 February 2006, Orleans, France. ISBN 978-2-7159-0978-6. Orleans, BRGM Editions, Collection Actes/Proceedings (2006), 25.

Huenges, E., Saadat, A., Brandt, W., Legarth, B., Tischner, T., Moeck, I., Holl, H.-G., and Zimmermann, G.: Current status of the EGS Gross Schönebeck project within the North German basin: main achievements and perspectives. From Ledru P. & Genter A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Engine Launching Conference, 12-15 February 2006, Orleans, France. ISBN 978-2-7159-0978-6. Orleans, BRGM Editions, Collection Actes/Proceedings (2006), 26.

Karytsas, C., and Mendrinos, D.: The LOW-BIN project of DG-TREN (efficient low temperature geothermal binary power) aiming in improving EGS exploitation costs. From Ledru P. & Genter A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Engine Launching Conference, 12-15 February 2006, Orleans, France. ISBN 978-2-7159-0978-6. Orleans, BRGM Editions, Collection Actes/Proceedings (2006), 77-78.

Schuppers, J.: EC support to geothermal energy research and demonstration. From Ledru P. & Genter A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Engine Launching Conference, 12-15 February 2006, Orleans, France. ISBN 978-2-7159-0978-6. Orleans, BRGM Editions, Collection Actes/Proceedings (2006), 12.

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