Zagreb students will soon be heated by geothermal energy
A new study revealed a significantly higher geothermal potential of Zagreb
About 4,800 students who are housed in the facilities of the Stjepan Radić Student Dormitory will be heated from October geothermal water, it was highlighted at the final conference of the project ‘Development of technical documentation for the use of geothermal energy in the exploitation field of geothermal water Zagreb’, which was held today in the premises of Sports Park Mladost.
That part of Zagreb, more precisely, the building of the Mladost sports complex and the Faculty of Kinesiology in Zagreb is already heated by this renewable energy source. And after the student dormitory, geothermal water could be a source of thermal energy for the future Blato National Children’s Hospital and the Zagreb spa of the same name, i.e. a new swimming pool.
Željka Sladović, director of the company Geoda Consulting, which is responsible for the preparation of the study and report on the reserves of the Zagreb geothermal field, points out that as part of the study, all existing data were collected, reprocessed, and the most modern tools were used in the analysis. By integrating all these data, a model was created which was then calibrated with the existing data. “Based on the model, we proposed locations for drilling future wells and increasing the capacity of the geothermal field Zagreb-1“, she explains, adding that the field occupies an area slightly larger than 50 km2 and geothermal deposits are not of equal quality everywhere. “In the Study, we singled out the zone of the best characteristics of the deposit, predicting sustainable production in the best aquifers“, he notes.
Volcanic crater
Željko Jurilj, director of the GPC Instrumentation Process company and holder of exclusive rights to the geothermal field, says that before this project, which was co-financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, it was considered that Zagreb’s geothermal potential was smaller. The new software used in the analysis showed a potential, i.e. a theoretical power of about 150 MW, and a obtainable power of about 120 MW.
In addition to the heat for the student dormitory and, among other things, the new children’s hospital, he points out that a conceptual solution has also been created for Terme Blato, which should cover 370,000 square meters. According to him, the resolution of certain property-legal relations is underway and the price of the land is awaited. At the same time, there is investor interest in that project, which, according to the conceptual solution, should actually be a large geothermal lake made in, of course, an artificial volcanic crater. The project could see the light of day in eight to 10 years, he believes.
Vladimir Cazin from the GPC Instrumentation Process company confirms that the study made by the Geoda company is extremely important because it shows much greater geothermal potential than previous analyses.
Vladislav Brkić, dean of the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum in Zagreb and president of the Croatian Association for Geothermal Energy (HUGE), reminds that Zagreb, like the rest of the Pannonian Basin in Croatia, has a 60 percent higher geothermal gradient than European average. “Therefore, the potential is of high quality and should be used”, he emphasizes, adding that the question arises as to why it is no longer being used, given that the Zagreb geothermal field was discovered back in 1977 and put into operation on the eve of the 1987 Universiade.
“Given the market economy and the prices of energy sources and the geoenergy crisis and the new environmental requirements that the European Union has set before itself, now is the right time to put the proven geothermal potential into greater use, even according to the study on reserves.” , believes.
Article transferred from energetika-net.com