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Sântana, Romania announces geothermal heating project

Sântana, Romania announces geothermal heating project Arad County, Romania (source: Chmee2/Valtameri, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Carlo Cariaga 22 Mar 2023

A geothermal heating project for public buildings has been announced in the town of Sântana in Arad County, Romania.

A geothermal project to heat public buildings has been announced in the town of Sântana, Romania. According to Mayor Daniel Tomuta, this project is “step 1” in a large plan for implementing sustainable energy and that the geothermal option can be expanded depending on the size of the reservoir.

The geothermal project will involve the drilling of a borehole to a depth of 1200 meters and the construction of 2.7 kilometers of pipes. The heat will be supplied to the town hall, a secondary school, and a technological high school. The project will cost an estimated EUR 5.7 million.

Located in the Arad County, Sântana is a relatively small municipality with only 11,000 residents. The only other geothermal project in this county is the heating project in Pecica, which is a similarly small town. Drilling of two wells in Pecica had already started in 2022 and geothermal heat is expected to be supplied to 13 buildings starting this autumn.

Most geothermal resources in Romania are used for heating, with the small geothermal power generation unit in Oradea as the sole exception. The binary plant in Oradea was commissioned in 2012 and has an installed capacity of 50 kW. In 2021, plans were announced for a photovoltaic park to supply 80% of the power consumption of the Oradea geothermal pilot plant.

Source: TheMayor.eu