| Abstract |
Hungary’s excellent geothermal potential is well-known. Traditionally, the country’s geothermal energy production was used for direct heat supply, with most of the thermal water used in spas. As yet, there is no developed ground-source heat-pump market or operational geothermal power-plant in Hungary. There are many current projects being prepared. These focus on geothermal power plant, CHP, district heating and GSHP incentives. Ongoing and increasing financial support, as well as simplified, transparent and reliable legislative frameworks is needed. The key environmental issue in the Hungarian geothermal sector is still injection. Only a minor part of the produced thermal water is re-injected. Hungary has traditionally had strong geothermal education, and in spite of the recession the courses are proceeding. The paper shortly reviews the history of geothermal energy and discusses the present state of geothermal energy production and utilization in the country. In 2011 595 active thermal water wells produced about 68,5 million m3 of thermal water in Hungary, representing 695,48 MWt / 10255TJ/y. The majority of the produced water was used for balneology (249 wells 36,8 million m3 265 MWt / 5285 TJ/year) in Hévíz, Zalakaros, Bükkürdõ, Makó etc. In direct heat utilization the main sector was agriculture, where altogether 154 wells produced 9,34 million m3 of thermal water, representing an installed capacity of 241,84 MWt and an estimated use of 2800 TJ/y. Of this about 75% was used for heating of greenhouses and plastic tents, and the rest for animal husbandries (2011). 16 locations have thermal water heating, for example in Hódmezõvásárhely, Szeged, Miskolc, Szentlõrinc. In 2011 this altogether used 6,76 million m3 of thermal water, which represent an estimated installed capacity of 132,97 MWt and use of 1350 TJ/y. In 2011 the industrial use was relatively low (8,3 MWt / 170 TJ/y). Between 2009 and 2013 about 15 deep geothermal projects were supported with grants of 19,48 million Euros in for example in Szolnok Hospital, Vácrátót Botanic Garden, Gyopárosfürdõ Thermal Bath. There are reparation two large district heating projects of 2010-2012. operated by Pannergy in Szentlõrinc and Miskolc. There are many current projects being prepared. These focus on geothermal power plant, CHP, district heating and GSHP incentives for example in Mosonmagyaróvár, Szolnok. The newly introduced concessional system targeting exploitation of reservoirs below -2500 m aroused much interest: altogether 16 proposals are waiting for the announcement of the first bids in 2013. |