Croatia's northern Varazdin county said on Tuesday that all preconditions exist to build a 16 MW geothermal power plant, citing research by its subsidiary, electricity generation company Bukotermal.
Bukotermal, a joint venture in which the Varazdin county owns 85% and and the municipality Mali Bukovec holds the rest, has completed the research on the Lunjkovec - Kutnjak field, one of Croatia's largest exploitation geothermal fields covering 99 square kilometres, the county authorities said in a press release following a presentation of the results of the research held on Monday evening.
You can download the 2023 Renewable energy in Southeast Europe report here
The research started in 2021 after two years of preparations. It has verified the presence of a geothermal water source at a depth of 2.4 kilometres with a temperature of 142.03 degrees Celsius.
It was the most demanding and most sophisticated project that the county has launched and financed, it said.
To date, over 2.5 million euro ($2.6 million) have been invested in the project, representing a portion of the total expenses required for the design and construction of the geothermal power plant, according to Alen Pozgaj, CEO of Bukotermal. He estimated that about 50 million euro would be needed to complete the project.
Bukotermal has a six-month timeframe to determine the field's exploitation method and implement environmental protection measures, with the primary goal of constructing one or more geothermal power plants and heat utilisation facilities.
Construction is expected to start in the next year and a half or two years, Darko Markovic, the head of the Mali Bukovec municipality said in the press release.
($ = 0.945 euro)
Click here to read the original article by Author Annie Tsoneva in SeeNews.
