Geothermal Heating Project-Ziar Nad Hronom (Slovakia)

Abstract

Results of the geological research and investigations ranks the territory Slovakia, according the geothermal activity (Muffler, 1976), to the over average regions. The éiar intravolcanic depression (Fig. 1) has very favorable hydrogeothermal conditions. In the middle of this depression lies the town of éiar nad Hronom with 27 000 inhabitants. Until this time the heat consumption is covered with central heating system based on coal and with small system based on gas. The boiler station, which is installed in the ZSNP Aluminum plant, needs reconstruction and also is necessary to change the heating medium (coal) so the project of geothermal energy utilization as the substitution of existing system started to be created in the year 1995. During the years 1995 ñ 1996 the geophysical and geological survey was done. The feasibility study was worked out with Danish company in the year 1997. Several alternatives were solved in this study. It is assumed to be drilled 2 exploitation and 2 reinjection wells with total yield 150 l/s (pumping) with well head temperature 90 ñ 95 ?C. The total investment of the project is ca 20 mln. USD. The payback period is about 6-7 years. After 3 years of implementation with the geothermal energy, it will be covered 75 ñ 80 % of total heat demand (949 TJ/year). The first drilling was finished in 1999.