, but company executives say the Ukraine conflict could change the scheme’s dynamics.
Germany is casting about for ways to wean itself off its dependence on Russian gas imports. To this end, it is trying to ramp up its faltering efforts on renewables, and plans to build an LNG terminal to take deliveries from Qatar and the US. “We’re trying to help them make the process of getting all the required permitting simpler and faster. We’re not asking for shortcuts or handouts, we’re just asking for them to put more people on the job to make it happen more quickly.”
Mr Rezos said the soaring cost of gas in Europe had changed not only Germany’s appetite and urgency level for switching fuels, but also the cost equation. He said once Vulcan had some offtake agreements, it would require infrastructure adjustments at the geothermal plant to switch from producing electricity to heat. But in the Upper Rhine Valley, a lot of the core heating-supply infrastructure was already in place.The new opportunity in geothermal heat would be built into the definitive feasibility study that Vulcan was preparing to release in the second half of this year, Dr Wedin said.