Barrier and Opportunity Identification in Geothermal Direct Use: A Task of Collaborative Research under IEA-GIA

Abstract

Under the IEA-GIA Annex VIII collaborative research framework, we have devised and circulated a questionnaire to identify barriers and opportunities in promoting geothermal direct use. The twelve countries answered to the questionnaire are Australia, Canada, France, Hungary, Spain and Sweden and six original Annex VIII participating countries such as Iceland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland and USA. The questionnaire consists of the three parts and total 13 questions and detailed items are listed under each question.
According to the compiled results of the answers, the prospect of geothermal direct use is ever increasing, especially geothermal heat pump installation with 10-30% annual increase. However to see substantial and sustainable increase of geothermal direct use, some technological problems should be solved, which are needs for a proper method of direct use resource assessment, and engineering standard and qualification procedures. Type and level of government supportive measures such as subsidy, tax credit, electricity rebate are quite different from country to country depending on each country’s development stage and legal system.
Although it is getting better, geothermal is still less known to public than other renewables such as wind, solar, bio and so on. At the decision making level, furthermore, lack of lobbying or powerful lobbying from other renewable energy sources may be a threatening factor against making geothermal wide spread. A further study including survey on other countries those are active in direct use such as China, Germany, Poland and Turkey is necessary to help us better understand different situations world wide.