The possibilities for electric energy production from geothermal resources in Serbia

Abstract

Geothermal investigations in Serbia began in 1974, after the first world oil crises. In 1990, a first assessment of geothermal resources has been made for all of Serbia. The territory of Serbia has favorable geothermal characteristics. There are four geothermal provinces. The most promising are the Pannonian and Neogene magmatic activation provinces. Age of certain granitoid rocks and their volcanic products is estimated using K/Ar method. Age of the examined rocks ranges from 30 to 10 million years. The analyses are made for an estimation of the energy potential in geothermal resources. For the granitoid plutons of Serbia, the age has been found dependent on hypsometric position of sampling sites. This may be explained by magma solidification inside the pluton 10 to 13 million years later than that of its upper portions. This is very important for the estimation of its present geothermal resources, or an estimate of its available HDR resources. Diagram (Smith & Shaw, 1975) shows that granitoid massifs of Kopaonik, Cer and Golija are feasible for exploitation of HDR geothermal resources. This is expected to be corroborated by the next geothermal exploration and a new age estimation by K/Ar method.