Geothermal Country Update for Hungary

Abstract

This paper gives a brief review of the history of geothermal energy in Hungary and discusses the present state of Hungary's geothermal energy production and utilization. Hungary’s excellent geothermal potential is of course well-known. Traditionally, the country’s geothermal energy production was used for direct heat supply, with most of the thermal water used in spas. Many such projects are currently underway. These focus on geothermal power-plant, CHP, district-heating and GSHP incentives. In 2022, more than 900 active thermal water wells produced about 90 million m3 of thermal water in Hungary. Geothermal district-heating and thermal-water heating cascade systems represent a major part of Hungary’s direct use, available in 26 towns representing about 235,29 MWth installed capacity and 641,37 GWhth/yr. Major new projects have been established in Szeged. Individual space heating (mostly associated with spas) is available at nearly 50 locations These represent altogether an installed capacity of 94,11 MWth and 163,39 GWhth/yr production. The agriculture sector is still a key player in direct use, especially in the SE of Hungary, where the heating of greenhouses and plastic-tents have long traditions. These account for ~ 402 MWth installed capacity and ~ 880 GWhth/yr production. Balneology has historical traditions in Hungary, more than 270 wells yield thermal water, sometimes medicinal waters which represent a total installed capacity of about 263 MWth with an annual use of about 778,5 GWhth/yr (Nádor et al, 2022). Recently, the first Hungarian geothermal power plant project was implemented in Tura, and has a 3 MWe capacity. Unfortunately, the underdeveloped geothermal sector is not showing many other signs of progress, with the lack of reliable registry documentation making it hard to estimate the real GSHP number. In the family house market and in other official andial applications, air-based heat pumps have become dominant. The majority of these new applications are installed in new office buildings..