| Abstract |
The main legal obstacle to the establishment of geothermal power plants in Hungary was removed in the autumn of 2013, when the first geothermal concession tender for deep ( more than 2500 meters) geothermal systems was issued. During the tendering process the geothermal project developers were given opportunity for setting up a complete deep geothermal exploration process and also a complex geothermal project plan. In cases of shallower reservoirs (2500 meters) reservoir, we do not have much information, the fractured zones are risky and the discovered reservoir can provide so much thermal heat that it is difficult to be sold While facing these difficulties, integration is the key word during the planning process of the geothermal power plant plans. Naturally, the national and regional specifications of Hungary and the Pannonian Basin are to be taken into consideration. The integration in project development appears in three different forms. 1. Integration of the resource and demand. It is not only an optimization task, but also a necessary profitability criterion. It is important to sell the whole scale of the produced energy in a cascade system. The whole temperature range is to be sold in its optimal form: electricity production from the range over 90oC, direct heat utilization between 40 – 90oC, ground source heat pumps between 25 – 40oC. The towns with over 20 000 inhabitants are generally large enough to consume the 6 – 20 MWth “waste heat” of a 2 – 5 MWe geothermal power plant in Hungary. The imported natural gas is consumed by the majority of the buildings of these municipalities. There are a lot of large agricultural plants in the country equipped with greenhouses. More and more new industrial zones have emerged near the towns with 10 – 20 MWth heat demand. They would prefer to consume renewable energy resources with competitive prices. One of these consumption systems has to be selected and the whole produced heat energy is to be covered in order to set up a profitable geothermal power plant project. 2. Integrated risk management including technical, financial and legal issues respectively The complex risk management takes into consideration both exploration and operation risks, as well as procurement, financing and market risks, and also the licensing processes. Any of these risks can become a fatal obstacle during a project development process and the latest changes in the Hungarian financial and legal background have strongly influenced them. A project developer needs to take them into consideration. 3. Integration of the technological, financial and legal-permitting processes Significant changes have taken place in Hungary concerning either the technological, financial or legal processes. From the technology point of view, the geothermal professionals’ focus of attention has been devoted to the exploration or establishment of deeper reservoirs and new exciting concepts are arising including EGS ideas. The finances are vigorously dependent on the 2014-2020 European Union budget and subsidies. The most important change in the legal background is the new geothermal concession system, which, however, needs further amendments. An intelligent informatics system can be a good solution concerning the integration of these three main issues during project development. Integration in project development ensures a professional complex project plan for the establishment of the first geothermal power plant in Hungary. It influences the geothermal development in the Pannonian Basin and even in the whole Eastern Europe as well. |