| Title | French Financial Incentives to Promote Geothermal Energy |
|---|---|
| Authors | Astrid CARDONA MAESTRO, Norbert BOMMENSATT, Philippe LAPLAIGE |
| Year | 2015 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | Geothermal energy, Financial incentives, Renewable Heat Fund, Guarantee schemes for geological risk |
| Abstract | Within the framework of the European environmental commitments (reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions, increase of the share of renewable energies in the energy mix and reduction of energy consumption), France carries out an ambitious support policy for renewable energies, including geothermal energy. In this favorable context, geothermal heat is thus expected to be multiplied by 5 between 2006 and 2020 whereas the general objective for renewable heat is a multiplication by 2. Since the end of the 2000s, following the outcome of the national debate “Grenelle de l’environnement”, several support schemes were set up in the geothermal energy sector, like for example subsidies on investments and guarantee systems for the mitigation of the geological risk. So this paper aims to present the French data since WGC2010 in particularly the last significant results achieved with two major incentive schemes: the Renewable Heat Fund and the guarantee systems covering geological risk. The Renewable Heat Fund has been put in place for the funding of operational projects in tertiary, collective buildings or agricultural/industrial process and is driven by the following principle: to reach a renewable energy sources heat price at least 5 % lower than conventional heat. Its implementation by 2009 contributed to developing geothermal district heating projects such as in Paris basin, and shallow geothermal operations with heat pumps of a higher 50 kW power. The assessment at the end of 2013 shows that nearly 300 operations have been subsidised thanks to this program; it represents a renewable energy production of more than 913 GWh and a total aid of 75 M€. The other component of the geothermal energy financial support is the existence of guarantees of the geological risk: • “AQUAPAC”: It is dedicated to the ground water heat pumps operations and it has guaranteed approximately 30 operations per year since 2010, • The “Geothermal Guarantee Fund” has been abounded for the operations of deep geothermal energy with direct use of heat. These guarantees are used to strengthen the development of geothermal energy. Reflections are currently on going for the creation of guarantee funds for geothermal power stations of electric production in order to sustain the emergence of this sector which has all the key competences and actors in France to implement successfully this kind of project. |