IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i13p3565-d1695983.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental and Social Dimensions of Energy Transformation Using Geothermal Energy

Author

Listed:
  • Michał Kaczmarczyk

    (Department of Energy Resources, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Krakow, Mickiewicza 30 Av., 30-059 Krakow, Poland)

  • Anna Sowiżdżał

    (Department of Energy Resources, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Krakow, Mickiewicza 30 Av., 30-059 Krakow, Poland)

Abstract

The use of geothermal energy is gaining strategic importance in the context of sustainable development and the decarbonisation of local energy systems. As a stable and low-emission renewable energy source, geothermal energy offers tangible environmental and social benefits, including improved air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and enhanced energy independence. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the social dimensions of geothermal energy deployment in Poland, with a particular focus on environmental impacts, public acceptance, and participatory governance. Based on a Polish geothermal district heating system example, the paper demonstrates that geothermal projects can significantly reduce local pollution and support low-carbon economic transitions. The study includes a comparative assessment of avoided emissions, a critical discussion of potential social barriers, and SWOT and PESTEL analyses identifying systemic enablers and constraints. The authors argue that for geothermal energy to fulfil its sustainability potential, it must be supported by inclusive planning, transparent communication, and a holistic policy framework integrating environmental, technological, and social criteria.

Suggested Citation

  • Michał Kaczmarczyk & Anna Sowiżdżał, 2025. "Environmental and Social Dimensions of Energy Transformation Using Geothermal Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-23, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:13:p:3565-:d:1695983
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/13/3565/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/13/3565/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arne Höltl & Cathy Macharis & Klaas De Brucker, 2017. "Pathways to Decarbonise the European Car Fleet: A Scenario Analysis Using the Backcasting Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Gürbüz, Emine Yağız & Güler, Onur Vahip & Keçebaş, Ali, 2022. "Environmental impact assessment of a real geothermal driven power plant with two-stage ORC using enhanced exergo-environmental analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 1110-1123.
    3. Magdalena Strojny & Paweł Gładysz & Trond Andresen & Leszek Pająk & Magdalena Starczewska & Anna Sowiżdżał, 2024. "Environmental Impact of Enhanced Geothermal Systems with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide: A Comparative Life Cycle Analysis of Polish and Norwegian Cases," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Anna Sowiżdżał & Magdalena Starczewska & Bartosz Papiernik, 2022. "Future Technology Mix—Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) and Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS)—An Overview of Selected Projects as an Example for Future Investments in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-24, May.
    5. Gkousis, Spiros & Thomassen, Gwenny & Welkenhuysen, Kris & Compernolle, Tine, 2022. "Dynamic life cycle assessment of geothermal heat production from medium enthalpy hydrothermal resources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    6. Maria Laura Parisi & Melanie Douziech & Lorenzo Tosti & Paula Pérez-López & Barbara Mendecka & Sergio Ulgiati & Daniele Fiaschi & Giampaolo Manfrida & Isabelle Blanc, 2020. "Definition of LCA Guidelines in the Geothermal Sector to Enhance Result Comparability," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.
    7. Michał Kaczmarczyk & Anna Sowiżdżał & Barbara Tomaszewska, 2024. "Life Cycle and Water Footprint Assessment in the Geothermal Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-23, December.
    8. Sigurjónsson, Hafþór Ægir & Cook, David & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur & Bogason, Sigurður G., 2021. "A life-cycle analysis of deep enhanced geothermal systems – The case studies of Reykjanes, Iceland and Vendenheim, France," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1076-1086.
    9. Tong Xing & Hongyu Lin & Zhongfu Tan & Liwei Ju, 2019. "Coordinated Energy Management for Micro Energy Systems Considering Carbon Emissions Using Multi-Objective Optimization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-27, November.
    10. Pehnt, Martin, 2006. "Dynamic life cycle assessment (LCA) of renewable energy technologies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 55-71.
    11. Pellizzone, Anna & Allansdottir, Agnes & De Franco, Roberto & Muttoni, Giovanni & Manzella, Adele, 2017. "Geothermal energy and the public: A case study on deliberative citizens’ engagement in central Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 561-570.
    12. Mélanie Douziech & Lorenzo Tosti & Nicola Ferrara & Maria Laura Parisi & Paula Pérez-López & Guillaume Ravier, 2021. "Applying Harmonised Geothermal Life Cycle Assessment Guidelines to the Rittershoffen Geothermal Heat Plant," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-14, June.
    13. J. Lelieveld & J. S. Evans & M. Fnais & D. Giannadaki & A. Pozzer, 2015. "The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 367-371, September.
    14. Ediger, Volkan Ş. & Kirkil, Gokhan & Çelebi, Emre & Ucal, Meltem & Kentmen-Çin, Çiğdem, 2018. "Turkish public preferences for energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 492-502.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michał Kaczmarczyk & Anna Sowiżdżał & Barbara Tomaszewska, 2024. "Life Cycle and Water Footprint Assessment in the Geothermal Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Soltani, M. & Moradi Kashkooli, Farshad & Souri, Mohammad & Rafiei, Behnam & Jabarifar, Mohammad & Gharali, Kobra & Nathwani, Jatin S., 2021. "Environmental, economic, and social impacts of geothermal energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Gkousis, Spiros & Welkenhuysen, Kris & Compernolle, Tine, 2022. "Deep geothermal energy extraction, a review on environmental hotspots with focus on geo-technical site conditions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    4. Gkousis, Spiros & Thomassen, Gwenny & Welkenhuysen, Kris & Compernolle, Tine, 2022. "Dynamic life cycle assessment of geothermal heat production from medium enthalpy hydrothermal resources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    5. Maryori Díaz-Ramírez & Snorri Jokull & Claudio Zuffi & María Dolores Mainar-Toledo & Giampaolo Manfrida, 2023. "Environmental Assessment of Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant based on Exergy Allocation Factors for Heat and Electricity Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-17, April.
    6. Maria Milousi & Athanasios Pappas & Andreas P. Vouros & Giouli Mihalakakou & Manolis Souliotis & Spiros Papaefthimiou, 2022. "Evaluating the Technical and Environmental Capabilities of Geothermal Systems through Life Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-30, August.
    7. Michał Kaczmarczyk & Anna Sowiżdżał & Barbara Tomaszewska, 2020. "Energetic and Environmental Aspects of Individual Heat Generation for Sustainable Development at a Local Scale—A Case Study from Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.
    8. Solano-Olivares, K. & Santoyo, E. & Santoyo-Castelazo, E., 2024. "Integrated sustainability assessment framework for geothermal energy technologies: A literature review and a new proposal of sustainability indicators for Mexico," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    9. Huopana, Tuomas & Song, Han & Kolehmainen, Mikko & Niska, Harri, 2013. "A regional model for sustainable biogas electricity production: A case study from a Finnish province," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 676-686.
    10. Tabata, Tomohiro & Okuda, Takaaki, 2012. "Life cycle assessment of woody biomass energy utilization: Case study in Gifu Prefecture, Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 944-951.
    11. Lanzi, Elisa & Dellink, Rob & Chateau, Jean, 2018. "The sectoral and regional economic consequences of outdoor air pollution to 2060," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 89-113.
    12. Adam R. Brandt, 2011. "Oil Depletion and the Energy Efficiency of Oil Production: The Case of California," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(10), pages 1-22, October.
    13. Héctor Jorquera & Ana María Villalobos, 2020. "Combining Cluster Analysis of Air Pollution and Meteorological Data with Receptor Model Results for Ambient PM 2.5 and PM 10," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-25, November.
    14. Ellen Banzhaf & Sally Anderson & Gwendoline Grandin & Richard Hardiman & Anne Jensen & Laurence Jones & Julius Knopp & Gregor Levin & Duncan Russel & Wanben Wu & Jun Yang & Marianne Zandersen, 2022. "Urban-Rural Dependencies and Opportunities to Design Nature-Based Solutions for Resilience in Europe and China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-25, March.
    15. Jae Yun Jeong & Inje Kang & Ki Seok Choi & Byeong-Hee Lee, 2018. "Network Analysis on Green Technology in National Research and Development Projects in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-12, April.
    16. Rogers Kanee & Precious Ede & Omosivie Maduka & Golden Owhonda & Eric Aigbogun & Khalaf F. Alsharif & Ahmed H. Qasem & Shadi S. Alkhayyat & Gaber El-Saber Batiha, 2021. "Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Levels in Wistar Rats Exposed to Ambient Air of Port Harcourt, Nigeria: An Indicator for Tissue Toxicity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-21, May.
    17. Hongjun Yu & Jiali Cheng & Shelby Paige Gordon & Ruopeng An & Miao Yu & Xiaodan Chen & Qingli Yue & Jun Qiu, 2018. "Impact of Air Pollution on Sedentary Behavior: A Cohort Study of Freshmen at a University in Beijing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-12, December.
    18. Tian, Xueyu & You, Fengqi, 2019. "Carbon-neutral hybrid energy systems with deep water source cooling, biomass heating, and geothermal heat and power," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 413-432.
    19. Stefani Kulebanova & Jana Prodanova & Aleksandra Dedinec & Trifce Sandev & Desheng Wu & Ljupco Kocarev, 2024. "Media Sentiment on Air Pollution: Seasonal Trends in Relation to PM10 Levels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-20, July.
    20. Ravikumar, Dwarakanath & Malghan, Deepak, 2013. "Material constraints for indigenous production of CdTe PV: Evidence from a Monte Carlo experiment using India's National Solar Mission Benchmarks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 393-403.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:13:p:3565-:d:1695983. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.