Context & perspectives

Europe is sleeping over a giant yet largely unused source of renewable energy: geothermal energy. The huge amount of natural heat coming from Earth formation and radioactive decay is lying in the ground below European citizens´ feet and is an underused Renewable Energy (RE).

A part of this natural heat, namely Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS), is a new approach which generates great hopes in the world. It allows a widespread use of the enormous untapped geothermal energy potential, with a much larger geographical distribution than conventional geothermal energy. The concept of the EGS approach is to exploit the heat which is trapped in any geological settings with several configurations for rock composition, tectonic setting and stress field.

To boost the market penetration of geothermal power in Europe, MEET main goal is to demonstrate the viability of EGS with electric and thermal power generation in all main kinds of geological settings (crystalline, sedimentary, metamorphic, volcanic).

The main objectives of the project are:

• To gather knowledge of EGS heat and power production in various geological settings
• To increase heat production from existing plants and to convert oil wells into geothermal wells
• To enhance heat-to-power conversion at low temperature (60-90°C) by using smart mobile Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) units
• To replicate the technology by promoting the penetration EGS power and/or heat plant

To summarize, MEET concept is to capitalize on the low temperature fluids of EGS plants and oil wells to demonstrate the lower cost small-scale production of electricity and heat in wider areas with various geological environments.

MEET will provide a roadmap of next promising sites where demonstrated EGS solutions could be replicated in a near future for electricity and heat production.