EU research seeks to redefine geothermal power, heating, and cooling
nGEL Project consortium, project kick-off meeting in Bochum, Germany (source: RePG Enerji)
Carlo Cariaga
30 Sep 2024
The EU-funded "Next Generation Flexible Trigeneration Geothermal ORC Plant" project aims to make ORC plants more responsive to changing demands.
On July 4th, the “Next Generation Flexible Trigeneration Geothermal ORC Plant” (nGEL) Project consortium marked a significant milestone with a project kick-off meeting held in Bochum, Germany.
The main objective of the nGEL project is to be able to generate electricity from geothermal resources at 110 °C and below, which are considered to be very low temperatures, and to make electricity, heating and cooling systems very efficient at moderately low temperatures of 110 to 170 °C.
The nGEL Project is a joint initiative of seven organisations and funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme for the next four years. The coordinator of the project is The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, supported by the beneficiary partners, Vlaamse Instelling Voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V. (VITO), Zorlu Enerji Elektrik Uretim, Geolorn Ireland Ltd., Repg Energy, Naldeo Technologies Et Industries; and Technovative Solutions Ltd. as the associate partner. The budget of the nGEL Project is almost EUR 6 million.
The project aims to transform the geothermal organic rankine cycle (ORC) plants into flexible tri-generation plants capable of both efficiently as well as cost-effectively responding to the dynamic demand of power, heating, and cooling. It attributes geothermal energy as a dispatchable source to balance the power and thermal grid against the progressive integration of intermittent Renewable Energy Sources (RES).
With the implementation of the nGEL technology in all of the existing ORC plants in the EU, around 215 TWht heat can be delivered to the thermal grid. This is approximately 4% of the EU current annual heat demand, corresponding to annual economic savings of €9.6 billion/year.
nGEL is a 4-year long project being funded by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No 101148170 under the call: “Horizon-CL5-2023-D3-02 (Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply)”.
To know more about the project, visit: www.ngel-geothermal.eu
Contact:
Project Coordinator: Dr Shahin Jamali
Organisation: Fraunhofer IEG
Email: Shahin.jamali@ieg.fraunhofer.de
Communications Lead: Dr Tamanna Khan
Organisation: Technovative Solutions Limited
Source: Email correspondence via our Turkish language platform JeotermalHaberler
