In December 2023, the Geothermal Implementation Working Group released its revised Implementation Plan.

This second update of the Implementation Plan brings the research and innovation ambitions in line with the challenges that Europe faces today. The scope is now extended to all geological and subsurface depth levels, underground thermal energy storage, and co-production of minerals and geothermal energy, which are now all part of the focal areas of the IWG and its work.

The Implementation Plan pays due attention to the widely present low and high-temperature geothermal energy resources in Europe. The development of these resources, together with that of urban district heating and cooling networks fed by geothermal energy, represents a key opportunity to increase the renewable heat supply. Geothermal electricity can be a major contributor to balancing local effects resulting from the dependence on non-dispatchable renewables, such as wind PV and solar thermal; attention is paid to developing this capability, with a specific key action in the IP. The plan also identifies the R&I Actions required to develop underground thermal energy storage technologies and the co-production of minerals such as Lithium (Li).

The IWG acknowledges that the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for 2023 of the European Technology & Innovation Platform on Geothermal (ETIP-Geothermal) has been a key influence in updating this Implementation Plan. The Geothermal IWG and ETIP-Geothermal have now aligned their respective R&I priorities, a move which is most welcome and will further serve to coordinate the entire geothermal energy sector in Europe.