Geothermal power in Germany is expected to grow, mainly because of a law that benefits the production of
geothermal electricity
Geothermal power is electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 26 ...
and guarantees a
feed-in tariff
A feed-in tariff (FIT, FiT, standard offer contract,Couture, T., Cory, K., Kreycik, C., Williams, E., (2010)Policymaker's Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy advanced renewable tariff, ...
. Less than 0.4 percent of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
's total primary energy supply came from geothermal sources in 2004. But after a
renewable energy law that introduced a tariff scheme of EU €0.15
S $0.23per
kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity produced from geothermal sources came into effect that year, a construction boom was sparked and the new power plants are now starting to come online.
21st century power plants
The first German geothermal power plant was built in 2003 in
Neustadt-Glewe
Neustadt-Glewe is a German town, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim.
History
Neustadt-Glewe was mentioned for the first time in a document in 1248.
Hans Axel Holm, a Swedish writer and journalist, documente ...
located in northern Germany. This power plant implements
Organic Rankine cycle
In thermal engineering, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a type of thermodynamic cycle. It is a variation of the Rankine cycle named for its use of an organic, high-molecular-mass fluid whose vaporization temperature is lower than that of wate ...
(ORC) technology and has an electricity output of 230 kW. At the same site, a geothermal heat plant built in 2015 is still in operation, it has a geothermal heat output of just 4 MW.
A second geothermal ORC power plant went operational 2007 in
Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990) ...
, south Germany. It is operational all-year-round, generating 3 MW of electricity. Shortly after, a third geothermal power plant went operational in
Unterhaching
Unterhaching (; Central Bavarian: ''Haching'') is the second largest municipality in the district of Munich in Bavaria, Germany, located to the south of Munich city centre and easily accessible via two federal motorways, Bundesautobahn 8 and Bunde ...
, south Germany. This geothermal power plant used the
Kalina process, has a thermal capacity of 38 MW, and supplies the
district heating
District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating a ...
system with heat.
Sustainability
In the same year (2003) the TAB (bureau for technological impact assessment of the
German Bundestag
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
) concluded that Germany's geothermal resources could be used to supply the entire base load of the country. This conclusion has regard to the fact that geothermal sources have to be developed sustainably because they can cool out if overused.
See also
*
Renewable energy in Germany
Renewable energy in Germany is mainly based on wind and biomass, plus solar and hydro. Germany had the world's largest photovoltaic installed capacity until 2014, and as of 2021 it has over 58 GW. It is also the world's third country by instal ...
*
Wind power in Germany
Wind power in Germany is a growing industry. The installed capacity was 55.6 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2017, with 5.2 GW from offshore installations. In 2019, a quarter of the country's total electricity was generated using wind ...
*
Solar power in Germany
Solar power in Germany consists almost exclusively of photovoltaics (PV) and accounted for an estimated 8.2 percent of the country's gross-electricity generation in 2019.
About 1.5 million photovoltaic systems were installed around the count ...
*
Renewable energy by country
This is a list of renewable energy topics by country and territory. These links can be used to compare developments in renewable energy in different countries and territories and to help and encourage new writers to participate in writing about ...
References
{{Europe topic , Geothermal energy in
Geothermal energy in Germany
Renewable energy in Germany