French RGreen Invests €52.4 Million in Geothermal Company Arverne

en.Wedoany.com Reported - French sustainable investment firm RGreen Invest has invested €52.4 million (approximately $59 million) in French geothermal energy solutions provider Arverne to advance geothermal energy development. The investment was made through its holding company Geogreen, with RGreen collaborating on the project alongside Arverne founder and CEO Pierre Brossolet.

RGreen Invest manages approximately $3.3 billion in assets, focusing on investments in renewable energy infrastructure and climate change mitigation. The company's core philosophy is energy sovereignty, aiming to help businesses and countries better control their energy usage.

Arverne was founded in 2018 in Pau, France, but its drilling roots trace back to Arverne Drilling Services, established in 1958, which originally specialized in drilling engineering for the oil, gas, and mining sectors. Pierre Brossolet decided to pivot this expertise toward geothermal energy, utilizing deep geothermal drilling technology to extract heat from underground. In addition to its drilling operations, Arverne owns 2gré, a company that sells geothermal heat, and Lithium de France, which seeks to extract lithium from underground geothermal brines.

Arverne's most notable project to date is located beneath Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. At the end of 2024, the company drilled two geothermal wells for airport operator Groupe ADP, generating up to 80 gigawatt-hours of energy annually for Terminal 1. Subsequently, Arverne and energy group Dalkia secured a 30-year concession to build and operate a geothermal district heating network in the Paris suburbs of Clichy-sous-Bois and Livry-Gargan, a project valued at nearly €90 million (approximately $102.6 million). In May of this year, the company formed a joint venture, Francilienne de Géothermie, with Banque des Territoires, the local investment arm of French state-owned bank Caisse des Dépôts, specifically to develop geothermal projects in the Île-de-France region, which sits atop the Dogger aquifer, one of Europe's mature geothermal heating markets. In the Alsace region, Lithium de France began drilling its first pair of geothermal wells in mid-2025 in Schwabwiller, aiming to simultaneously produce heat and lithium from the same well.

Research by the International Energy Agency indicates that geothermal resources up to 8 kilometers deep globally could provide 600 terawatts of electricity, while current global energy demand is only 20 terawatts. Despite this vast potential, geothermal energy still accounts for a small share of Europe's energy mix. According to industry body EGEC, geothermal district heating output in Europe grew by 4.6% between 2023 and 2024. The French government aims to quadruple geothermal production to 28 terawatt-hours by 2035. EU member states expressed explicit support for geothermal energy for the first time in December 2024, with the European Commission facing pressure from a coalition of nearly 70 companies and investors, including signatories such as EGEC and Cleantech for Europe, to release a dedicated geothermal strategy. The coalition argues that geothermal technology could replace 42% of Europe's remaining coal and natural gas power generation.

The main obstacle to geothermal growth is upfront capital risk, as exploration drilling can cost tens of millions of euros, and developers cannot predict well performance in advance. According to Rystad Energy, exploration well failure rates range from less than 10% in Hungary and Germany to 30% in the Netherlands. Permitting processes vary significantly among EU member states, adding to development complexity. Public perception of potential earthquakes caused by deep drilling also poses a barrier, with incidents in Basel, Switzerland, and Staufen, Germany, having caused building damage.

RGreen Invest founder and CEO Nicolas Rochon framed the investment in terms of energy security. He said the company is delighted to partner with Arverne, a company that has proven its ability to unlock France's geothermal resource potential, providing strategic infrastructure to strengthen French and European energy security. Pierre Brossolet stated that Arverne aims to produce approximately 4 terawatt-hours of deep geothermal energy annually in France by 2031-2033, accounting for more than half of the target set in the national energy roadmap, avoiding nearly 1 million tons of CO2 emissions compared to natural gas. Additionally, Lithium de France plans to produce 27,000 tons of lithium carbonate annually, providing battery materials for approximately 800,000 electric vehicles.