Renault to develop geothermal for Douai facility, France

Close-up of Renault logo on a car (source: Ivan Radic / flickr, Creative Commons)

French automobile manufacturer Renault has announced plans of using geothermal energy to provide both heat and power to their manufacturing facility in the city of Douai in France. The Renault Group has entered a 15-year partnership with French utility company Engie for the project. Drilling at the site is expected to commence by late 2023.

The plan is to extract geothermal fluids from a depth of 4000 meters with expected temperatures between 130 and 140 degrees Celsius. This will then supply industrial heat to the facility by 2025. During summer when the heat demand is low, the geothermal energy can be used to produce electricity. The geothermal resource is expected to support 40 MW of capacity.

Renault’s geothermal project in Douai is only one of several efforts that the automobile manufacturer is undertaking as the company target carbon neutrality in Europe by 2040 and globally by 2050. Renault had also previously signed a lithium offtake agreement with geothermal lithium developer Vulcan Energy Resources.

Source: CNBC