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The Geothermal potential of Slovakia

The Geothermal potential of Slovakia Kosice, Slovakia (source: flickr/ Ben Bawden, creative commons)
Francisco Rojas 14 May 2014

Since the early 2000's there is renewed interest and options to invest and develop projects in Slovakia, a region full of potential.

Slovakia is a very interesting country from a geothermal point of view. Sitting on top of a very active area. The estimated potential of Slovakia’s geothermal energy is 5,538 MWt. Geothermal energy is the second most prospective renewable energy source, with 17.5 percent in terms of the potential for its usage according to the news source. Currently, the main uses for geothermal are focused around heating purposes and agriculture.

With all this potential, the evolution is slow but steady. There are some plans coming to light, like the one currently being developed by SPP, the country’s national gas company. According to the online publication, a SPP spokesperson Peter Bednár said that SPP has so far completed all the necessary steps for preparing the investment from an engineering standpoint.

“However, two factors, the economic reasonability and the security of the investment, especially affect the pace of the progress of the project,” said Bednár, adding that SPP has already invested €16 million into the project. “Understandably, we are interested in the return on this investment. Our effort is to complete this project in a way that it is beneficial for all participating parties under any conditions.” For the time being, the company is planing to build a geothermal power station with an installed capacity of 3.5 MW.

Regarding the areas of concern for the development of Geothermal energy generation, areas such as “satisfactory economic return and sufficient protection of the investment” are the key points to address. Ensuring profitable ROI on investment projects is a initial hurdle that must be carefully addressed. Peter Bednár also mentioned in his interview that more efforts can be done to promote the security of investors.

There are some changes that aim to change these trends. The online newspaper remarks that “The Regulatory Office for Network Industries decreased this tariff from €200 per MWh as of 2014, the Trend weekly wrote.” The Slovak government is also changing its policy of support for renewable energy sources while in the future it will instead support such projects via grants from EU funds and not subsidised feed-in tariffs.

Slovakia, in the heart of Europe has some hurdles to overcome but it is moving towards addressing them and making it an interesting possibility for geothermal investment and development.

 

Source: The Slovak Spectator Website