Geothermal power in Germany is expected to grow, mainly because of a law that benefits the production of geothermal electricity and guarantees a feed-in tariff. Less than 0.4 percent of Germany's total primary energy supply came from geothermal sources in 2004. But after a renewable energy law that introduced a tariff scheme of EU €0.15 [US $0.23] per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity produced from geothermal sources came into effect that year, a construction boom was sparked and the new power plants are now starting to come online.

21st century power plants

The first German geothermal power plant was built in 2003 in Neustadt-Glewe located in northern Germany. This power plant implements Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology and has an electricity output of 230 kW. At the same site, a geothermal heat plant built in 2015 is still in operation, it has a geothermal heat output of just 4 MW.^[1]

A second geothermal ORC power plant went operational 2007 in Landau, south Germany. It is operational all-year-round, generating 3 MW of electricity. Shortly after, a third geothermal power plant went operational in Unterhaching, south Germany. This geothermal power plant used the Kalina process, has a thermal capacity of 38 MW, and supplies the district heating system with heat.^[2]

Sustainability

In the same year (2003) the TAB (bureau for technological impact assessment of the German Bundestag) concluded that Germany's geothermal resources could be used to supply the entire base load of the country. This conclusion has regard to the fact that geothermal sources have to be developed sustainably because they can cool out if overused.^[3]