The Alpine regions are deeply involved in the challenge set by climate change, which is a threat for their environment and for important economic activities such as tourism. The heating and cooling of buildings account for a major share of the total primary energy consumption in Europe, and hence the energy policies should focus on this sector to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by international agreements. Geothermal heat pump is one of the least carbon-intensive technologies for the heating and cooling of buildings. It exploits the heat stored within the ground, a local renewable energy source which is widely available across the Alpine territory. Nevertheless, it has been little considered by European policies and cooperation projects. GRETA (near-surface Geothermal REsources in the Territory of the Alpine space) is a cooperation project funded by the EU INTERREG-Alpine Space program, aiming at demonstrating the potential of shallow geothermal energy and to foster its integration into energy planning instruments. It started in December 2015 and will last three years, involving 12 partners from Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. In this paper, the project is presented, along with the results of the first year of work.

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ABSTRACT. Carbon dioxide capture and geological storage (CCS) is a means to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This paper shows an application to the Austrian context of a newly developed methodology for the assessment of geological reservoirs, based on expert opinions on the Schönkirchen Tief, Höflein, Schönkirchen Übertief, Reyersdorfer Dolomite, Aderklaa, AtzbachSchwanenstadt and Voitsdorf reservoirs. Because of a lack in reservoir-specific research for the storage of CO 2 , large uncertainties on the behaviour and use of the Austrian reservoirs exist. Therefore the potential of the reservoirs remains unknown. Geological, technological and economic simulations are performed which integrate different uncertainties. The results show that there is a significant potential for CO 2 storage in Austria. The total practical and matched capacity for Austria is assessed at about 120 and 40 MtCO 2 respectively. An exploration priority ranking, based on reservoir development probability, shows that the Schönkirchen Übertief reservoir has the highest potential for storage and should be a primary target for further exploration.