0502 – Improving the energy efficiency of geothermal energy utilisation by adjusting the user characteristics

Name of the lead partner organisation: Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences

Country of the lead partner organisation: Poland

Project summary: 

Geothermal energy is a natural, underground renewable resource that is common in many countries around the world, with considerable variations in terms of the depth of occurrence and quality of the source (temperature, flow rate, mineralization). Volcanically active regions that enable the exploitation of high-temperature geothermal resources occupy a relatively small part of the globe compared to medium and low-temperature resources. However, in many European countries, these medium and low-temperature resources can be used in heating systems, provided that the supply and return temperatures in district heating networks are sufficiently low. Indeed, the lower the water supply and return temperatures in the heating circuit, the more geothermal heat can be used as the base load energy source.

The User4GeoEnergy project aims to demonstrate the benefits and promote technological solutions, the beneficiaries of which will be both heating system operators and heat end-users. These solutions are based on increasing energy efficiency, e.g. by lowering the supply and return temperature in heating systems. This requires at the same time increasing the heating surfaces in households of the existing heat recipients, or the use of modern technological solutions among newly build buildings, which will allow the use of low-temperature solutions.

The User4GeoEnergy project involves partners from Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary with practical support from Icelandic and Norwegian research institutions. The extensive experience of the experts, both in the area of the utilization of geothermal resources and energy efficiency, will allow us to demonstrate a number of benefits resulting from lowering the required supply and return temperatures. These solutions can bring measurable economic benefits for both heat recipients and heating systems operators, but most of all, they will contribute to reducing the emission of pollutants from the current peak sources.