Heat Provision Costs from Geothermal Energy in Comparison to Other Sources of Energy

Abstract

The use of geothermal energy as well as other renewable sources of energy instead of fossil energy to meet the heat demand in Europe can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore a fast market introduction of such systems is a common demand of politicians throughout Europe. But to increase the use of renewable energies as a source of energy for meeting the given energy demand they must compete economically with the use of fossil fuels. On this background the aim of this paper is it to analyse the costs of the provision of heat from geothermal energy in comparison to the use of other renewable and fossil energies exemplarily for the circumstances given in Germany. The investigations show that the costs of the provision of useful energy from geothermal energy are in most cases higher compared to the costs of a heat provision from fossil energy carrier. But compared to the heat provision from other renewables geothermal energy could be a very promising option.