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16.09.2005 ESTIR report 2005 released The report of the ongoing ESTIR process ("Energy Scientific and Technological Indicators and References") has been published by the European Commission, DG Research (DG RES). It can be ordered on paper, or is avaible for download here. The report contains explicitely a chapter on geothermal energy, on pages 51-56. The main emphasis is, as with all publications of DG RES, on "Enhanced Geothermal Systems" (Soultz, being the premiere geothermal project supported by DG RES). However, due to the interventions by EGEC, other technologies and applications, like geothermal heat pumps and low-temperature binary power production cycles are mentioned. The text gives a picture of an energy source with a wide range of applications, some already commercial, and others needing still more R&D. The description by DG RES focusses, of course, on the latter ones. Traditionally, publications by DG TREN, responsible for energy, do put more interest on geothermal direct uses and geothermal heat pumps. The task of EGEC is to make sure the "other" options in each case are not forgotten completely. |