Exchange on the use of a new geothermal technology in Bavaria
On 5 March 2026, the Geothermal Alliance Bavaria visited the facility of the Canadian company Eavor in Geretsried to learn about the current state of the Closed-Loop technology deployed there.
Since December 2025, the Geretsried plant has been feeding electricity into the public grid. The first of four planned loops is in operation. Eavor’s Closed-Loop technology works with a fully sealed circuit in which a working fluid circulates without any contact with deep groundwater or surrounding rock. Heat is absorbed in a controlled manner in the subsurface via multilateral wells. This design provides a baseload-capable and dispatchable energy source that operates independently of hydrothermal reservoirs.
Eavor has been operating a demonstration facility in Alberta, Canada, since 2019, confirming the fundamental functionality of the system. The project in Geretsried is the first commercial loop of its kind in Europe. With the successful operation of the first loop, the conditions are in place to achieve the full performance of the system in the next project phases. The economic evaluation of energy production from the pilot project is currently still ongoing.
The project demonstrates that geothermal energy in a closed-loop system is technically feasible and reliably usable under Bavarian conditions. The facility provides important insights for the further expansion of innovative geothermal technologies in the region.
