One of Japan’s largest utility groups Chubu Electric Power will buy into a pioneering project to deploy “game changing” geothermal energy technology in Germany.
Chubu will take a stake of around 40% in the project company developing a geothermal power and district heating project in Bavaria that will be a first-of-a-kind commercial deployment for Eavor-Loop technology developed by Canadian start-up Eavor.
Eavor is currently attempting to commercialise its method of turning sub-surface heat from the Earth’s core into unlimited renewable energy, without the need to discover underground hot-water reservoirs as is the case in conventional geothermal power.
Eavor has previously said it will be able to provide gigawatts of baseload and dispatchable renewable energy anywhere in the world for less than $50/MWh, with an Eavor-Lite demonstrator operating in Alberta, Canada, since 2019.
Chubu last year moved to take around 20% of Eavor itself, joining the likes of oil giants BP and Chevron as a backer, and will now also participate in the Bavarian project, called Eavor Erdwärme Geretsried, which will have a power rating of around 8MW and a district heating transfer rating of 64MW.
The German project is due to complete its first ‘loop’ and begin commercial operation in October 2024, with completion of the entire project in August 2026. Eavor itself and Enex Power will hold the remaining share.
The Bavarian project has been backed with a €91.6m ($103m) innovation grant by the EU and Chubu has made no secret of its eventual aim to deploy Eavor-Loop in Japan.
Hiroki Sato, division CEO of global business at Chubu, said: “I am convinced that the Eavor-Loop Technology would be a true game-changer for the enhancement of renewable energy, and Chubu is very excited to be working with Eavor through the world‘s first Eavor-Loop commercial project at Geretsried in Germany.”
Sato told Recharge earlier this year that Eavor is one part of a wide ranging, energy transition-focused agenda as it pursues international ambitions that it expects to involve 400bn yen ($3.1bn) of investments in the current decade.
John Redfern, Eavor’s CEO, said: “The involvement of Chubu as a foundation partner and as a leader represents the next step in the rollout of our technology, its commercialisation and shows our global scalability.”
