Deep geothermal energy is a potential resource of both heat and electricity generation that is extremely large, nearly CO2 free, domestically sourced and probably reliable. These advantages, and in particular the enormous potential scale of the resource, give great incentive to answer the questions – how much of this resource is available at what economic cost, what are the environmental and risk‐related externalities that must be borne by the public, how do these multiple criteria compare to competing future energy resources, and will the regulatory framework and public acceptance exist to allow geothermal energy to provide a significant contribution? The current TA Swiss DGE project is needed to answer these questions in a comprehensive and balanced way, using an inter‐disciplinary evaluation approach that facilitates comparison with other technologies and that will support stakeholder decision‐making. There are no perfect energy solutions, but understanding deep geothermal’s strengths and weaknesses will provide a first structured indication for the role it can play in the portfolio of solutions for the Swiss energy future.
The TA Swiss DGE project results could be seen here. The latter includes also the links to the Executive Summary and the Book.
Project details
Duration: 2013-2014
Financing: TA Swiss