| Title | Geothermal Energy Use, Country Update for Belarus |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zui, V. and Martynova, O. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Conference | European Geothermal Conference |
| Keywords | Geothermics, geothermal energy, terrestrial temperature distribution, heat flow, Geothermal resources, GSHP installations, country update. |
| Abstract | Belarus is located within western part of the East European Platform. It is known that within relatively cold Precambrian platforms there are no visible geothermal manifestations such as geysers, fumaroles, mud volcanoes, etc. Nevertheless there are mainly small geothermal installations constructed and used in the country. Temperature distribution maps compiled for the depths of 100 and 200 m for the whole territory of the country, as well as for the depth of 2 km within the Pripyat Trough show a contrast pattern of the terrestrial temperature field. The same concerns the heat flow map of Belarus. Geothermal resources were estimated for some of geothermal horizons of the sedimentary cover. Only very preliminary estimates were fulfilled for a depths position at which it could be possible to reach temperatures of 150 – 180 ºC, necessary to construct geothermal power plants. These depths reach 7 – 12 km within different crustal blocks and are within the crystalline basement. They are over the economically acceptable limits. Therefore the geothermal electricity generation is not considered for the nearest future. The density of recoverable geothermal resources are dependent both on the depth of geothermal reservoir and the individual crustal block. They typically range from 10 to 20 – 25 kilograms of oil equivalent per meter square (kg.o.e/m2) to as high as a few hundreds of kg.o.e/m2 within the Podlaska-Brest Depression and even over 1000 kg.o.e/m2 for the northern part of the Pripyat Trough. Around 100 geothermal installations were constructed and used all over the country starting from the middle of nineties of the past century and a few more geothermal heating systems are under construction now. All available installations are used for space heating purposes and sometimes simultaneously to heat warm water. The biggest geothermal installation of 1 MWth was put into operation at the Greenhouse Complex “Berestye”, located at the eastern suburb of Brest town not far from the Belarus-Poland state border. All heat pump installations excluding the latter one are using shallow depth intervals with lowenthalpy geothermal resources. |