The National Energy Authority, Rannís and eight European Energy Agencies receive a grant of about 2 million Euros from the European Union to support the development of Geothermal in Europe. The National Energy Authority as the project manager receives about 600.000 Euros.

Last winter GEORG assited in the application and negotiation process of a Geothermal ERA NET application to the ERA NET schema of the European Commission. Behind the application are in addition to NEA and Rannis eight institutions from the following eight countries in Europe: The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Turkey and Slovakia. When choosing the states for the cooperation, the main focus was to look for objectives regarding the use of geothermal and how their plans would go hand in hand with the goal of the European Union to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

The GEOTHERMAL ERA NET cooperation is for four years and it is anticipated that the project will eventually support geothermal research in Europe. That could lead to a greater cooperation between Energy agencies and ministries in Europe and make it possible for them to work on common goals. One of the objectives of GEOTHERMAL ERA NET is to create a European Geothermal Database.

GEOTHERMAL ERA NET is different from other conventional research projects since here the grant is for cooperation and coordination on the research plan of the countries that are working together but not for a research work.

The GEOTHERMAL ERA NET is the first step towards a coordinated research in the EU through the so-called SET PLAN (European Strategic Energy Technology Plan).