| Title | Country Update France |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christian BOISSAVY, Virginie SCHMIDLE-BLOCH, Armand POMART, Reda LAHLOU |
| Year | 2020 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | Geothermal energy, national policy, market, research |
| Abstract | The last market study 2019, carried out in France by the French Association of Geothermal Professionals regarding the geothermal domain has demonstrated that the installed power for heating and cooling reaches nearly 2600 MWth. About 600 MWth are related to the exploitation of the deep reservoirs in the Paris area but the main part is linked to the recent and strong development of shallow geothermal resources in the whole country. The market for single housing using vertical geothermal probes is dramatically decreasing since 2009 due to the competition with natural gas and tax credit at 30% for geothermal without any bonus compared with efficient gas boiler neither air-air heat pumps. The market for single housing has been divided by 7 in between 2010 and 2018 from more than 20 000 installations to less than 2500. On the contrary, the number of installations to feed collective housing and residential blocks including offices buildings is growing constantly. The direct uses are concentrated mainly in Ile de France, the geothermal doublet construction restarted with the support of the Heat funds managed by ADEME and the two last years, more than 20 new deep wells have been drilled in Ile de France. The main barrier remains the energy calculation rules for new buildings (RT2012) which still encourage gas. In 2023, the market will reach 3000 MWth installed; if ecologically driven, the target objectives at 3500 MWth could be largely attained. For electricity generation no more installations have been commissioned even the Soultz-sous Forêts plant has been revamped. The Bouillante plant has been sold by BRGM to ORMAT mid-2016 and the plant capacity will be upgraded from 15 to 25 MWe in the next years. Two geothermal doublets are in drilling operations (3500 and 5000m depth) around Strasbourg with successful preliminary tests, in order to co-generate electricity (10 MWe) and heat (20 MWth). |