Following the endorsement of the Deep Geothermal Implementation Plan (DG-IP) by the SET-Plan Steering Group, a Deep Geothermal Implementation Working Group (DG-IWG) is being established to advance the DG-IP, with the aim of reaching collectively the technology targets that will place Europe at the forefront of the next generation of low carbon technologies. The objective of this project proposal is to create a support unit for the DG-IWG to achieve its goals efficiently and productively. The support unit will have three main work streams, 1) to provide the DG-IWG with relevant information and data from the various stakeholder groups to support the decisionmaking process and the implementations actions of DG-IWG on required actions; 2) to promote and organise initiatives to mobilize growth of and implementation within the geothermal community, e.g.: workshops, brokerages, consortium building and exploitation of RD&I results; 3) provide a secretariat for the DG-IWG for assistance on administrative issues and synergies & strategy support. The consortium will push forward a broad mobilisation of the Geothermal community to implement the action in the IP. Furthermore the project will focus on the development of synergies and strategies. New ways will be explored to maximize the impact of knowledge, funding and market growth at european, national and regional scale. This aproach supports to creation of a durable and long-lasting R&I ecosystem in the different Member-Sates and regions. The partners will focus on a multi-actor, multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach. As such the project will support the collaboration and networking among representatives of the triple helix (research, industry and government) at the regional and national level and with their counterparts from the Horizon 2020 Associated Countries.

The advantages of using geothermal for power production and H&C are little known. Recently, deep geothermal energy production in some regions is confronted with a negative perception, and a special attention from some decision-makers, in terms of environmental performance, which could seriously hamper its market uptake. Media reports focus more on disadvantages than advantages. As a result, decision makers and potential investors have concerns about possible environmental impacts and risks involved in implementing geothermal projects, and social resistance often results in practical obstacles - such as significant slowdowns - to the deployment of the deep geothermal resources. The first objective of the GEOENVI project is to make sure that deep geothermal energy can play its role in Europe’s future energy supply in a sustainable way. It aims to create a robust strategy to respond environmental concerns (by environmental concerns we mean both environmental impacts and risks): • by assessing the environmental impacts and risks of geothermal projects operational or in development in Europe, and • by providing a robust framework to propose recommendations on environmental regulations to the decision-makers, an adapted methodology for assessing environment impact to the project developers, and finally • by communicating properly on environmental concerns with the general public. Secondly, GEOENVI aims at engaging with both decision-makers and geothermal market actors, to have the recommendations on regulations adopted and to see the LCA methodology implemented by geothermal stakeholders. The engagement with stakeholders includes to share knowledge by adopting an open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data approach.

The COMPASS project is inspired by global efforts to improve utilization of geothermal resources by enlarging production fields downwards. Energy output can be enhanced, without the need to expand surface infrastructure, by drilling into deep and hot formations. Calculations indicate that wells drilled into superhot conditions will yield 5-10 times more than a conventional well which can significantly reduce number of wells required. The main challenges to achieve this are related to the well integrity; due to extreme temperature changes and corrosive fluid chemistry encountered. Two of three wells in the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) have already been drilled and had serious problems with casing failures. Numerous examples of casing failures in conventional geothermal wells show that current well concepts, mainly transferred from oil and gas applications, are barely sufficient for geothermal use. COMPASS will address these challenges by developing improved and innovative well casing technologies: -To mitigate casing failures, novel foam cement solutions will be developed suitable for high temperature formations. This system would work with available flexible couplings to mitigate high-temperature induced stresses and ensuring well integrity. - Cost-effective laser-cladding will be used to improve corrosion protection inside the casing pipes. These technology developments will be enhanced with a robust well design solution addressing challenges, reducing project risk and enabling reduction of LCOE. The new well concept will enable cost-effective geothermal developments in new types of geological settings and new regions. The COMPASS consortium contains a diverse team of major geothermal research institutes and leading industry players. This combination ensures cross-fertilisation, sharing of knowledge and experience, and seamless transfer of the novel well construction technologies by industry application, including significant citizen e

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS) is the sole distributed pan-European Research Infrastructure (RI) for solid Earth Science, enabling open access to high-quality, multidisciplinary data, products, and services. Based on the achievements of the previous EU projects on the design, implementation, and pre-operation of the EPOS RI, the EPOS ON project will support the consolidation of the infrastructure and pave the way for its further evolution. The project will enable the EPOS RI to meet long-term sustainability conditions for operation, relying on its ability to create value for the scientific and IT communities and to produce new insights for contributing to societal challenges related to risk management and environmental impact reduction. EPOS ON aims to enhance the EPOS services portfolio and develop new institutional and scientific collaborations by fulfilling the needs of different communities and by encouraging the establishment of new EPOS Thematic Core Services. This will provide the necessary impulse to expand access to data and services to a wider pool of users, in particular early career researchers, at both the European and global scale. User engagement will also increase thanks to the new generation of processing and workflow services developed during the project. EPOS ON is also devoted to shortening the gap between science and the private sector by enabling knowledge transfer and technological innovation. As a result, EPOS ON will reinforce the EPOS capability to unite scientific communities and countries, reducing fragmentation in the European Research Area. EPOS ON offers a timely opportunity for the optimization and evolution of the EPOS RI and reflects the strong commitment of its community to boosting EPOS impact.

GECO will advance in the provision of cleaner and cost-effective non-carbon and sulphur emitting geothermal energy across Europe and the World. The core of this project is the application of an innovative technology, recently developed and proved successfully at pilot scale in Iceland, which can limit the production of emissions from geothermal plants by condensing and re-injecting gases or turning the emissions into commercial products. To both increase public acceptance and to generalise this approach, it will be applied by GECO in four distinct geothermal systems in four different European countries: 1) a high temperature basaltic reservoir in Iceland; 2) a high temperature gneiss reservoir in Italy; 3) a high temperature volcano-clastic reservoir in Turkey; and 4) a low temperature sedimentary reservoir in Germany. Gas capture and purification methods will be advanced by lowering consumption of resources, (in terms of electricity, water and chemicals) to deliver cheaper usable CO2 streams to third parties. Our approach to waste gas storage is to capture and inject the soluble gases in the exhaust stream as dissolved aqueous phase. This acidic gas-charged fluid provokes the dissolution of subsurface rocks, which increases the reservoir permeability, and promotes the fixation of the dissolved gases as stable mineral phases. This approach leads to the long-term environmentally friendly storage of waste gases, while it lowers considerably the cost of cleaning geothermal gas compared to standard industry solutions. A detailed and consistent monitoring program, geochemical analysis, and comprehensive modelling will allow characterising the reactivity and consequences of fluid flow in our geologically diverse field sites letting us create new and more accurate modelling tools to predict the reactions that occur in the subsurface in response to induced fluid flow. Finally, gas capture for reuse will be based on a second stage cleaning of the gas stream, through amine separation and burn and scrub processes, producing a CO2 stream with H2S levels below 1 ppm, which is the prerequisite for most utilisation pathways such as the ones that will be applied within the project.