France
Contracting Party: Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Énergie, ADEME, France
Executive Committee Member: Virginie Schmidlé-Bloch, AFPG, France
Alternate Member: Christian Boissavy, AFPG, France
Hyperlink to the website of the Association Française des Professionnels de la Géothermie (AFPG).
France has been developing geothermal energy for many years with direct use operations in the Paris sedimentary basin since 1969. Targets have now been set for geothermal energy production of between 4 to 5 TWh by 2028. This will see a doubling of capacity over the period 2022 to 2028.
More than 200,000 geothermal or ground-source heat pumps are operational in France, with about 3000 new installations annually indicated from 2020 data.
A visualisation / graphical tool has been developed by AFPG and BRGM which enables the interrogation of geothermal data across France. Access to the tool through a web viewer can be made through this URL.
In 1986 a geothermal power plant was installed in Bouillante (Guadeloupe, French West indies). The facilities are producing ~115 GWh annually which is ~10% of the Guadeloupe demand. Planning is underway for expansion at the plant with the drilling of two wells, each to about 1600m deep planned.
Geothermal exploration studies are being conducted in the south of Guadeloupe, in Martinique and in La Reunion Island.
The Soultz-sous-Forêts power development and the ECOGI industrial heat development in Rittershoffen are operational in the Alsace region. Of the two deep projects around Strasburg, the Illkirch project is expected to continue, whilst the Vendenheim project is not proceeding.
