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 set in 2019 for geothermal energy production are for between 9 to 12 TWh by 2028. This will see a doubling of capacity over the period 2022 to 2028.
In support of these targets regulatory reform and reworking of the SAF-Environment Fund is to be undertaken to foster the uptake of deep geothermal projects across all of France, including in areas with lesser-known geological characteristics. ADEME has reshaped the “Fonds SAF” scheme seeking to increase the development of deep geothermal projects by extending the 90% geological risk guarantee to be applicable across all of France, whilst using a zoning approach according to the level of geological risk in a particular area.
More than 200,000 geothermal or ground-source heat pumps are operational in France, with ~4000 new annual installations indicated from 2021 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.
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.
