Workshop Report: Regulation and Public Decision Making in Geothermal Energy

<p dir="ltr">The potential for geothermal energy resources to play a key part in reaching the UK’s Net Zero target is significant (Abesser et al., 2020). However, geothermal energy developments are yet to take-off in the UK. In July 2022, the “Underground energy on the ground” project hosted a workshop in London with academic, industry and policy representatives. International speakers from the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Italy gave their country-perspective on geothermal energy resources, focusing on the themes of regulations, community engagement, and driving a national agenda. The Underground energy on the ground team shared their preliminary findings from research in the UK on regulations and engagement within the ‘deep’ geothermal sector. </p><p dir="ltr">Through the presentations and interactive sessions, the following set of key messages emerged: </p><p dir="ltr">• Financial support (e.g., financial incentives; risk mitigation and insurance schemes), coordinated and supported by government is needed. This should be on a phased basis with supports for pilot projects to demonstrate feasibility and encourage financial investment. </p><p dir="ltr">• Comprehensive regulation, identifying the regulators and a clear scheme for how the regulations are implemented and revisited as the sector progresses are required. </p><p dir="ltr">• Good practices of community engagement need further development: collaborative, transparent, inclusive and informative engagement throughout the lifespan of geothermal developments will be key to building trust in the technology, the sector, regulators and policy-makers alike. </p><p dir="ltr">• Further data, as well as sharing of data between operators but also with academics, governments and the public are needed. Who should be producing the data and where it should be held, and whether this should be an obligation are important questions to be addressed. </p><p dir="ltr">• Creating an environment which values collaboration, including collaborations across the energy sector (i.e., cross-technologies), can help facilitate data sharing and enable the transdisciplinary policy, regulation, industry, and academic research necessary to ensure the role of geothermal energy in the UK’s future energy mix.</p>