Source: European Parliament
The Commission has taken note of the Parliament resolution of January 2024[1], and of the Council conclusions of December 2024 and acknowledges that geothermal energy has an important role to play in the decarbonisation of the EU’s energy system.
The potential of geothermal energy has been so far hindered by challenges related inter alia to planning, permitting, skills, financing and availability of data.
As underlined in Affordable Energy Action Plan adopted on 26 February 2025[2], the Commission is committed to work on a comprehensive strategy to further advance on the decarbonisation of heating and cooling and will prepare a Heating and Cooling Strategy (first quarter of 2026), which will be accompanied by an action plan on geothermal energy.
In the meantime, timely transposition and implementation of recent legislation will benefit geothermal energy, in particular renewables targets on heating and cooling under the revised Renewable Energy Directive[3], and provisions in the Energy Efficiency Directive[4] concerning decarbonisation pathways towards 2050 for district heating and cooling networks (a key user of geothermal energy), and on local heating and cooling plans.
- [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/5738/oj
- [2] Action Plan for Affordable Energy: Unlocking the true value of our Energy Union to secure affordable, efficient and clean energy for all Europeans, COM (2025) 79 final.
- [3] Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (recast): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02018L2001-20240716
- [4] Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ%3AJOL_2023_231_R_0001&qid=1695186598766