Italian investors show interest in geothermal investment in Croatia
Velika Ciglena geothermal plant during construction (source: Helb.hr)
Alexander Richter
23 Dec 2019
Italian energy and engineering group Saipem has raised an interest in investments of geothermal development in Croatia.
As reported by the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency, Italian company Saipem has expressed an interest in investment into geothermal energy development in Croatia.
The agency has also indicated that it plans to invite bids for three more potential geothermal project locations in the country.
The Italian engineering and energy company Saipem, formerly a daughter company of Italian oil company ENI, met with the Agency and indicated its interest.
Agency Management Board chair Marijan Krpan pointed to the Velika Ciglena, pilot geothermal project for Croatia.
“We have been recognised as a country that has great geothermal potential and the steps that have been made to activate it have been yielding the first results in the past 12 months,” Krpan said.
Saipem has been developing its first geothermal energy exploitation project in South America, and Croatia has been recognised as the next step, Saipem official Paolo Carrera said.
Global production of energy from renewable sources will grow around 2.3% annually in the period until 2040 and Saipem will play an important role in that process, he said.
The geothermal potential in Croatia has been recognised, and a company like Saipem could potentially be a good partner in development of those resources.
In the news piece by Total Croatia News, it is also said that the Hydrocarbon Agency is also continuing its work on promoting and defining new models for the management of geothermal energy resources and their development.
It is now planned to issue a tender for three geothermal areas – Merhatovec (Medimurje County), Pcelic (Virovitica-Podravina County) and Ernestinovo (Osijek-Baranja County). At these locations, the estimated temperature found is believed to exceed 140 degrees Celsius, suitable for geothermal power generation.
The geothermal area of Pcelic, is even estimated to have a temperature of more than 207 degrees Celsius at a depth of more than 5,000 meters.
So far the Agency has published five tenders for the allocation of areas for the exploration and exploitation of geothermal water for the purpose of energy production, since 2018.
Source: Total Croatia News
