Croatia Country Update

Abstract

The Croatian part of the Pannonian basin area has been long known as a high potential geothermal area. Unfortunately, geothermal energy has been used for a long time only for balneological purposes. However, the new Act on exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons was adopted in 2018, and following that, an increasing interest of investors occurred in geothermal exploration. Since then, new exploration licenses have been granted, along with new exploitation licenses for electricity generation and direct use. The most significant development in geothermal energy use was the commissioning of the first geothermal power plant Velika 1, with a capacity of 10 MW, at the Velika Ciglena site. Also, after years of exploration, two large greenhouses with more than 10 acres together of tomato production have been recently granted exploitation licenses. The new motivation has come from Croatia's recovery and resilience plan, which funds the Croatian Hydrocarbons Agency in the amount of almost 30 million EUR intended for confirmation of geothermal potential, including geophysical surveys and the construction of two exploration wells for geothermal energy in the district heating. Additionally, Norway Grant’s Energy and Climate Change Programme funds four Calls for geothermal developments in Croatia that are currently being implemented. These triggers increased interest in geothermal exploration from both private investors and local communities resulting in even more exploration licenses issued. Hence, 14 exploration and 7 exploitation licenses for geothermal waters are now active promising new developments in the following years.