Croatian city of Bjelovar to drill a geothermal well in 2023

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Croatian city of Bjelovar to drill a geothermal well in 2023

Date: March 23^rd 2022

Author: Montel

Category: En.vision

Topic: Renewables , Energy policy , Heating

The central Croatian city of Bjelovar hopes to launch the new Korenovo geothermal well with energy potential of 4 MW for district heating by autumn 2023, its mayor told Montel on Tuesday.

Bjelovar will use the new geothermal well for heating a new business zone as well as a spa that is also in the city's project pipeline.

The project is worth EUR 3.4m and it will be partially financed by the EEA and Norwegian grants, said Bjelovar mayor Dario Hrebak.

According to the Croatian media, three other Croatian cities, Karlovac, Krizevci and Sveta Nedjelja, will also receive support from the same source to obtain the technical documentation and increase their geothermal energy production capacity. However, formal decisions regarding these projects have not been published yet.

Hrebak added that the geothermal well drilling in Bjelovar will start after the construction permit is secured at the beginning of the next year. The well’s water temperature is expected to be 70-80C, according to the preliminary data that the city obtained from the oil and gas company INA which explored the site in the past.

Bjelovar is located in the Pannonian area of Croatia, which is rich in geothermal potential. The first Croatian geothermal power plant Velika 1, with a capacity of 16.5 MW and operational since 2019, is located there.

500 MW potential

There are eight active geothermal exploration projects in Croatia at the moment and four of them are focused on electricity production, according to information on the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency’s web page. It is estimated that these four projects could bring 59 MWe of geothermal capacity online by 2025.

As part of one of these projects, the company Geo Power Zagocha expressed interest in obtaining energy approval from the economy ministry for a 20 MW geothermal power plant near the town of Slatina, in the Slavonia region.

Croatia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan envisages HRK 225m (EUR 30m) for projects that will confirm geothermal potential at six additional locations and to drill two exploration wells for possible district heating by 2026. A further EUR 25m will be available for geothermal projects from European structural and investment funds.

Croatia's geothermal energy potential is around 500 MW at locations that are known to have geothermal water for energy purposes, according to the Croatian energy development strategy by 2030.

(EUR 1= HRK 7.57)