Agricultural and Industrial Uses of Geothermal Energy in Europe

Abstract

Geothermal energy use in agriculture was one of the most important development directions in Europe during the 80-ies of the last century. However, it is recently the field of application with the biggest stagnation. Except in Hungary, there is practically no new projects in Europe during the last 10-15 years. Reasons can be located in lack of adequate and economically justified technologies, complicate maintenance and exploitation, environmental problems and, most of all, absence of governmental support and good organization. It is possible to state that most of them can be overcame by right approach to the problem and, based on the reached experience, to justify re-opening of a new process of development with significant economical and environmental benefits for the regions where hydrogeothermal resources are on disposal.