| Abstract |
Austria – Country Update Johann Goldbrunner The Total installed capacity of the Austrian deep geothermal projects amounted to 85 MW at the end of 2018. The existing district heating nets are undergoing constant expansion due to rising demand. For the geothermal project Ried im Innkreis (Upper Austrian Molasse Basin), which went into trial operation in 2014 based on two wells, a third, 2,600 m deep well was successfully drilled around the turn of the year 2018/2019; a fourth well is being planned, so that two geothermal doublets will be available in the end. The envisaged final installed thermal power is in the order of 28 MW. In the Styrian Basin the geothermal greenhouse project Frutura, which is based on two 3,000 m wells, went into operation in 2016. The current installed geothermal power is 15 MW, the glasshouse area was 17.5 ha in 2018, the delivered heat amounted to 63 GWh in 2018. The accomplishment of the project foresees at total glasshouse area of some 24 ha. The cultivated vegetables are tomatoes, paprika and cucumber. They are exclusively sold on the Austrian market thus decreasing the import of vegetables especially during winter. The production well Frutura GT2 is currently the hottest borehole in Austria with a wellhead temperature of 124 °C. Shallow geothermal For the period 2001 – 2015 the total number of projects based on downhole heat exchangers is estimated at 118,000 units. 6.24 million meters were drilled for these installations. Water-water heat pumps play an important role for large scale projects. For these projects the cooling option is becoming more and more important. This leads to a noticeable warming of the shallow groundwater, so that groundwater warming in urban areas will become a limiting factor in the future. |