| Summary: | The state of geothermal energy utilization in Europe and the world as of 2020.A b s t r a c t. According to data presented at the World Geothermal Congress 2020+1 and the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) market report, a significant increase in the use of geothermal energy was recorded worldwide in 2015–2020. The number of countries reporting direct use of geothermal resources (including ground source heat pumps) increased to 88 (34 in Europe), while the number of countries reporting geothermal electricity production to 29 (11 in Europe). The increase in the installed geothermal capacity for direct use in the last 5 years was over 50%, reaching approx. 108 GWt (use of thermal energy slightly exceeds ca. 1 EJ/year), wherein ground source heat pumps (GSHP) possess the highest percentage share in the above increase. They are responsible for almost 60% of the energy produced. The world leaders in terms of direct use of geothermal energy, excluding ground source heat pumps, are in the following order: China, Turkey, Japan, Iceland, Hungary, and New Zealand. China, where the installed capacity of GSHP amounted to approx. 26 GWt, holds the scepter of the world leader in this field. Three European countries: Sweden, Germany and Finland, are on the “top five” list in the world in terms of installed capacity at geothermal heat pumps. The total installed capacity of geothermal power plants in the world at the end of 2019 amounted to approx. 16 GWe (approx. 30% increase in 2015–2019), which allowed for the production of approx. 95 TWh/year of electricity. The world leader in terms of generating electricity from geothermal energy is the United States, with an installed capacity of approx. 3.7 GWe. The remaining countries with installed capacity exceeding 1 GWe are: Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey, Kenya, New Zealand, and Mexico. A growing interest in generating electricity by using binary systems, in particular in Europe has been noticed. In the period 2015–2019, three new binary installations in Croatia, ...
|
|---|