Geothermal power in Germany is expected to grow, mainly because of a law that benefits the production of
geothermal electricity
Geothermal power is electricity generation, 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 i ...
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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
's total primary energy supply came from geothermal sources in 2004. But after a
renewable energy
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
law that introduced a tariff scheme of EU €0.15
S $0.23per
kilowatt-hour
A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a comm ...
(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.
Neustadt-Glewe was the site of a German-Nazi concentration ...
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 (compared to water) whose vaporization temperature is l ...
(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 in 2007 in
Landau
Landau (), 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), a long ...
, 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 uses the
Kalina process, has a thermal capacity of 38 MW, and supplies the
district heating
District heating (also known as heat networks) 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 heater, space heating and w ...
system with heat.
Sustainability
In the same year (2003) the TAB (bureau for technological impact assessment of the
German Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the lower house of the German federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law for ...
) 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
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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 2023 it has over 82 GW. It is also the world's third country by instal ...
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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 2020, 23.3% of the country's total electricity was generated through wind po ...
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Solar power in Germany
Solar power accounted for an estimated 15% of electricity production in Germany in 2024, up from 1.9% in 2010 and less than 0.1% in 2000.
Germany has been among the world's top PV installer for several years, with total installed capacity a ...
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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