The first geothermal heating plant in Bavaria, which started operating in 2003, reached profitability 14 years ahead of expectations. Photo: Euronews

Since the nineties, Germany has played an active role in international climate policy, promotes cooperation on the subject worldwide, and defends renewable energies. Now he has decided to look for sites in Berlin to extract geothermal energy.

The information has been disseminated by the Euronews news several days ago, and already residents in Berlin comment on the benefits that this could bring in the German domestic economy.

According to the note by Kristina Jovanovski, from Euronews, this type of renewable energy could allow the coverage of 25% of heating consumption in the country, and reduce its energy dependence. A disused airport on the outskirts of Berlin could be key to helping make Germany more energy independent and cleaner. This is one of the places that are being studied to excavate and extract geothermal energy, a type of renewable energy from the subsoil.

Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz told a local news program that his country's goal is to obtain as much geothermal energy as possible by 2030, especially for building heating.

The conflict in Ukraine resulted in Germany deciding to drastically reduce its dependence on Russian gas. The German Geothermal Association notes that interest has skyrocketed since then.

However, the executive director of this project, Andre Deinhardt points out that there are obstacles to the expansion of this energy.

"We don't have enough money on the market for geothermal energy," Andre Deinhardt told Euronews. "Some steps have been taken in this regard, he added, but they are not fast enough. And we have to be faster, much faster when it comes to authorizing these geothermal installations."

Since the first decade of this century, there has been talk that the future of renewable energy supply in Germany depends among other aspects on sources such as biomass and geothermal energy, since solar energy does not have it all year round.

Biomass and geothermal energy are two of the key renewable sources to replace nuclear and fossil energy in the future.

🇩🇪☀️⚡️ Germany aims for 100% renewables by 2035 pic.twitter.com/ETSAgXTkCz

— Reuters Latam (@ReutersLatam) March 5, 2022

The goal is not only to improve energy efficiency and modernize energy supply in Germany and Europe, but also to lead the global market for green energy technologies.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is another important goal of Germany's energy concept. And to achieve this, renewable energies are the solution. However, in practice, there are still several constraints and challenges that remain to be resolved.

Biomass can generate electricity or energy for heating or cooling.

All over the planet there is the potential to exploit geothermal energy for heating or electricity thanks to the high temperatures existing in the subsoil. However, to be able to generate electricity, at least 150 º C is required.

This temperature is found at a depth of between 2.5 km and 4 km. Because the exploitation of "deep geothermal energy" requires more complex and expensive drilling and operating systems, most geothermal plants in Germany concentrate on extracting energy at shallower depths.

With geothermal energy it is clear that the supply is not conditioned by its reserves, nor by weather changes. It is a practically inexhaustible source of energy. Their real challenge is cost reduction in drilling and implementing the entire system.

One of the aspects addressed by the Summit of the G77 and China Summit is related to financing for confronting climate change.

Cuba has been opening up to energy because it has a very important dependence on the import of fossil fuels to feed its industry and for the generation of electricity. Developing renewable energy sources can help the state save money and make the economy more efficient. Geothermal has been in the plans, but money for investment has been tight.

The dilemma of countries to devote resources to renewable energies is very difficult, the global economic crisis does not help and on the other hand the consequences of climate change are causing tragedies such as the recent earthquake in Morocco and the floods in Libya, to cite just two catastrophic examples where substantial material goods are lost and what is worse the most valuable natural resource: the human being.