Krpan: Geothermal energy is linked to the northern part of Croatia

Geothermal energy is stable, clean and renewable, very usable because it is continuously available. It is estimated that it can meet up to a quarter of the heating and cooling needs in Europe and up to ten percent of the electricity needs. Geothermal energy can transform the Croatian energy system, but also strengthen economic development through innovation, investment and long-term sustainability.

Marijan Krpan, President of the Management Board of the Hydrocarbons Agency, spoke more about the potential of geothermal energy in Croatia.

Known geothermal sources in Croatia are located underground, that is, deposits.

“So we have relatively few sources on the surface. When the potential is determined and confirmed, and when work is underway to bring it into production, then we are talking about exploitation fields, of which there are 13. And that is actually some kind of indicator of the size of the potential, because it should be said that our entire Croatian potential, is linked only to the Pannonian part of Croatia,” said Krpan.

Croatia's potential is only related to the Pannonian part.

“From Slovenia to Vukovar. It is bounded by the Sava and Drava rivers, in the Sava and Drava depressions and later in the Murska and Sremska. So these are the areas of our interest,” he said.

There, the geological conditions enabled the creation of such geothermal deposits, while the southern part of Croatia is not suitable.

“Actually, further south of Karlovac, where we have carbonates on the surface, i.e. limestone, dolomite, etc., which are cold rocks in the geothermal sense. Then, unfortunately, we cannot talk about significant geothermal potential there. So, if we talk about geothermal resources, they are somehow related to the northern part of Croatia,” said Krpan.

Since World War II until today, several thousand wells have been drilled in that area.

“All this data, all seismic, 2D seismic, 3D seismic, gravimetric, magnetometer, everything that has been measured is in our agency's database. From this database, we made a screening, an assessment of the potential, where we took 200 wells where the presence of geothermal water was determined and where flows were obtained,” said Krpan.

75 locations were selected that confirmed the potential.

“Depending on the temperature obtained, we then classified it in such a way that we say that we have 35 locations that are favorable for the development of geothermal energy and the production of electricity from them, and where the temperature is somewhat lower, which we can use for district heating. This potential is certainly significant and should be used,” he added.

Comparison with neighboring countries

Croatia has a unique geothermal potential that is "60% higher than the European average".

“The Drava Basin with its temperatures exceeding 200°C is a unique case in Europe,” he added, noting that only Tuscany in Italy and parts of Turkey have similar conditions.

Speaking about the comparison with other countries, he believes that Croatia has unique natural predispositions.

“It is only up to us to find a way to actually use them, it will be difficult to count on the support of the whole of Europe in all this, because they do not have the conditions that we have,” said Krpan.

New projects

The agency has designed a new project with funds of 50 million euros in six locations: Zaprešić, Sisak, Gorica, Vinkovci, Vukovar and Osijek.

“The cities were chosen in such a way that each of these cities actually already has a certain central heating system to which this potential is then easy to connect. And then in that sense we started with this project. We drilled the first well in Velika Gorica and it gave excellent results,” said Krpan.

The goal is to establish a production-injection pair of wells by 2030 and enable heating from geothermal sources in Pannonian cities.

Source: HRT