New Developments and Future Achievements in the Geothermal Sector
In the geothermal power sector, the main new developments that can be expected to occur in the future are the following:
• Improved energy conversion efficiency of geothermal power plants, adapted to the reservoir temperatures on site for conventional turbines;
• Successful demonstration of the EGS on key sites, like Soultzsous-Forêts in France, and the dissemination of the technology used in this site to other sites and regions;
• Increased overall efficiency in geothermal CHP plants;
• Improvement of exploration methods, installation technologies, and system components (pumps, pipes, turbines, etc.).
The future development of the geothermal heating sector includes the following:
• Improved site assessment, exploration, and installation of shallow systems, and the dissemination of successful approaches applied by some countries to the whole EU;
• Further increase in the efficiency of ground-source heat pumps, optimized sys-
tem concepts, application of advanced control systems, and improved components and materials such as compressors, refrigerants, pipes, etc.;
• Construction of new district-heating networks and optimization of existing net-
works and plants, in particular in East/Southeastern Europe and Turkey;
• Increased application of innovative concepts related to the use of geothermal energy in agriculture, aquaculture, industrial drying processes, etc.;
• The use of geothermal energy for deicing and snow melting of roads and airport runways, as well as for the seawater desalination process.
In the following paragraphs, a brief description of the use of geothermal energy sources for electricity generation in a selected group of countries has been included.