“This is no joke: experts from Reykjavík learn about geothermal in Szeged” – boasted the leading new site in Szeged, Hungary and while it was more of a two-way knowledge transfer than a teacher-student interaction the fact remains: Icelandic, and Norwegian experts along with their Polish, Slovakian, and Hungarian colleagues from the User4GeoEnergy consortium visited major geothermal projects in Hungary and Slovakia and familiarized themselves with the latest in deep geothermal direct utilization in Central-Eastern Europe in May 2023.
The Szeged visit was organized by InnoGeo Ltd, a local R&D non-profit well-established in municipal geothermal district heating developments.
The Hungarian visit started and ended in Budapest with the majority of the technical events taking place in Szeged. The morning of 8 May saw all partners presenting their institutions and activities to the 30+ strong audience. Then, after a light lunch, the delegation was shown the drilling rigs and the largest heating plants in Szeged.
Among the attendees were representatives of DH companies, researchers from the University of Szeged, and personnel from a number of the enterprises of the South Great Plain Geothermal Energy Cluster.
The program continued in Slovakia where SLOVGEOTERM a.s. organized site visits, technical study visits and stakeholder consultation events. Project partners had an opportunity to visit Slovakian geothermal district heating systems. They obtained detailed technical information while local operators were informed about the results of the User4GeoEnergy project.
The event started by gathering project partners in Bratislava on 10 May 2023 evening. Site visit to the Galanta geothermal DHS (Galantaterm spol. s r.o.) took place the next day. The first Slovak geothermal DHS was introduced to participants in Galanta: experts visited the heat exchanger station and two production wells. The next stop was Velky Meder, which is the newest geothermal heating plant in Slovakia. Participants got relevant information about the operation and talked to the local crew.
The workshop for information sharing took place on 12 May 2023 in Bratislava. Except for the project partners, representatives of DHS companies, the media sector, NGO’s and universities were in attendance. Then three new extensive geothermal projects in Slovakia were presented by their project managers. In particular, these were:
- Geothermal project in Kosice region
- Geothermal project in Prešov region
- Geothermal project in Žiar nad Hronom region
The Project “Improving the energy efficiency of geothermal energy utilisation by adjusting the user characteristics“ is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation, grant number 2018-1-0502.
More information about the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation click here.
More information on the Project visit the website or contact pajak@meeri.pl (Project manager)
