Analysis of Possibilities for Electricity Production from Geothermal Waters in the Province of Malopolska, Poland

Abstract

Decisive influence on the efficiency of electricity production and the installed capacity of geothermal power plants are: the temperature of geothermal water and the flow rate of the production well, determined by the physical parameters of the rock formation. Following the examples of some other countries and current state of geothermal uses, the paper shows realistic perspectives to produce electricity in Malopolska province using geothermal waters. The paper presents the way to recognize possibilities of electricity production (thermal parameters of the ground analysis, installed capacity calculation method) with the use of geothermal waters in the province of Malopolska. The total number of wells in the region is around 6000. To identify perspective areas for electricity production, data form 320 wells with the depth over 2000 m have been taken into account and analyzed. The reason for that were geothermal water resources proved so far in Poland (including Malopolska province) with the temperatures not exceeding 90-120 degree Celsius at the depth over 3000 m. The energy conversion method taken to the analysis was Organic Rankine Cycle as a basic and most suitable method for electricity production from low temperatures geothermal waters. Calculations present in the paper lead to the conclusion that there are realistic perspectives to produce in cogeneration heat and electricity from geothermal waters in the Malopolska province, however the install capacity of the power plants will not exceed 2 MW.