Objectives

GEOTHERMICA's objective is to combine the financial resources and know-how of geothermal energy research and innovation programme owners and managers, and – together with financial support from the European Commission – to launch joint projects that demonstrate and validate novel concepts of geothermal energy utilisation within the energy system and that identify paths to commerciality.

As specified in the Deep Geothermal Implementation Plan within the framework of the SET-Plan, improved and increased technology performance and the reduction of the cost of technologies are strategic targets for deploying geothermal energy in GEOTHERMICA countries.

The overall aim of this collaborative activity is to accelerate the deployment of geothermal energy in Europe by:

• Pooling national and EC funds for research and innovation
• Focusing on improving business cases for geothermal energy and
• Establishing a long-lasting strategic collaboration of national geothermal research and innovation program owners and managers of the GEOTHERMICA consortium.

GEOTHERMICA aims at direct use and power generation from geothermal resources in an optimised way, including integrated and combined systems (e.g. heat pumps, other forms of renewable energy, and using the underground as a heating and cooling energy storage site). 

Until now, the development basis of geothermal energy is on national funding for research, development and deployment (RD&D) and market support measures, with few exceptions of country-to-country bilateral and cooperative agreements. 

Now it is time to embark on the next step: combine forces at the European level and realise significant developments on a big scale through a platform of jointly funded European RD&D projects. The European perspective bundles national funding efforts and provides the opportunity to unite the geothermal knowledge of all participating countries. 

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Three “pillars” support the growth of the European geothermal sector. 

_{GEOTHERMICA brings together owners of European national geothermal research and innovation programmes to support industry and Europe's research and innovation community. The former representation by actors such as the European Geothermal Energy Council EGEC and the European Technology and Innovation Platforms (ETIP) on Deep Geothermal and Renewable Heating and Cooling, while the latter is the European Energy Research Area's Joint Program on Geothermal Energy (EERA-JPGE) and other actors. There are, of course, many more players in each of the pillars.}