| Title | Status of Geothermal Energy in Bulgaria |
|---|---|
| Authors | Klara T. Bojadgieva, Hristo Hristov, Vladimir Hristov and Aleksey Benderev |
| Year | 2000 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | geothermal energy, direct use, Bulgaria |
| Abstract | Geothermal research and development in Bulgaria has progressed at a slow pace in the last five years. Government has withdrawn their support and the private industry has been generally involved only in bottling of potable water and soft drinks. Only two small demonstration projects for space heating and hot tap water, entirely financed by the PHARE Program have been completed at two geothermal cites. A small geothermal installation for school heating was partially funded by the State. The paper gives an updated summary of utilization for balneology, space heating, greenhouses, aquaculture, swimming pools and bottling of potable water. At that point (mid 1999) the total installed capacity for geothermal energy in the country is 95.35 MWt. Compared to 1995 about 2.5 MWt of direct schemes dropped out due to wear and new 0.85 MWt were built. The use of geothermal energy resulted in fuel savings amounting up to 33,030 TOE/year (46,988 tons of coal equivalent/year). The presented status of geothermal energy is based on the resource reassessment that was completed in 1998 by the Geological Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. |