| Abstract |
In 2013, Croatia became a member of EU. A new attitude, aimed to ease and attract investors, is applied to raise the country’s economy, especially within the long neglected energy sector. Over the last few years several international companies and local developers have worked on the potential geothermal fields. They have managed to get several new exploration licenses for power generation from geothermal energy. The object of their interest are proliferous fractured carbonate geothermal water aquifers, able to produce temperatures much higher than 100°C. International expert opinions about studied prospect are exciting for now, considering that some locations are already tested. Currently, investors are faced with cutting investment costs for drilling, testing and producing at the depths of more than 2000 m. First privately invested deep well for direct utilization of geothermal energy was drilled several years ago to 1300 m where sandy geothermal water reservoir was found, with water temperatures near 100°C. All phases of exploration, drilling and final production had been carried out in agreement with legal, regional and environmental considerations. Here, clean, renewable energy, despite high initial cost of drilling and construction of deep well, has proven itself as a reliable and favorable, in the long-term, than other locally available energy sources. Such production can also yield unconventional hydrocarbon productions from dissolved gas in regional aquifers, or enhance production in conventionally exhausted hydrocarbon fields, increasing profit and net production. Several projects using abandoned oil exploration and production wells are in the process of legalization and utilization, also for direct heat consumption. We expect that such projects, supported by changes in the current legal and economic system and followed by experienced technical support, can lead to reasonable levels of this resource consumption in a country. Exploration of new geothermal resources for electric power generation and direct utilization of existing objects improves understanding of local geology and sets new perspectives for low cost geothermal production. Those are attractive for fast developing, low temperature heat pump technology and hybrid energy systems. We see such projects moving from most prolific areas in the north Croatian Pannonian sedimentary basin, to the southwest Dinara range, where thermal events are seemingly seldom, but with some future efforts can become significant. Realistic expectation of stable, electric power generation can reach nearly 100 MWe (2% of the existing capacity in a country) followed by several hundred MWt, as co-generation heat. From drilling at new sites and using several hundred existing oil and abandoned deep gas wells for utilizing direct geothermal heat, the country could reach additional 500 MWt. Such growth of geothermal production can change the lethargic economy of the country, giving Croatia a fighting chance in today’s tough world economy. Geothermal resources are not only important as an energy source, but also as a trigger to other types of activities. This article is aimed to present the potential for the successful start of geothermal electric power production in Croatia. |