Cite report
IEA (2024), The Future of Geothermal Energy, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-geothermal-energy, Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Policy recommendations
- Move geothermal up the energy policy agenda by making geothermal energy more prominent in national energy planning; developing dedicated goals and technology roadmaps; and recognising the unique features of geothermal as a source of firm, dispatchable low-emissions electricity and heat.
- Design risk mitigation schemes for early-stage project development, including in collaboration with regional, national and international finance institutions.
- Introduce policies ensuring long-term revenue certainty and fair remuneration through long-term contracts and support schemes that properly compensate for contributions to system adequacy and flexibility.
- Simplify and streamline permitting for geothermal energy by consolidating and accelerating administrative steps involved. Consider dedicated geothermal permitting regimes separate from minerals mining.
- Design policies and regulations enforcing robust environmental and social safeguards by actively engaging communities.
- Support geothermal heat applications for residential, commercial and industry use by investing in heat demand mapping, energy system planning, district network infrastructures and by financing at national, regional and city levels.
- Improve data quality and create open data repositories to facilitate geothermal resource assessments for investors.
- Expand geothermal-specific research and innovation programmes including demonstration and testing of emerging technologies.
- Increase policy focus on expanding geothermal skillsets to meet growing demand for workforce by increasing the number of geothermal-specific academic programmes and trainings in partnership with academia and industry.
- Promote international collaboration to develop technical standards for geothermal to address environmental concerns and enable scalability for achieving economies of scale.