The Ministry of the Economy and Sustainable Development adopted a decision on issuing permits for the exploration of geothermal waters for energy purposes in four research areas in the regions of Slavonia, Podravina and Međimurje.
The permit for exploring geothermal waters for energy purposes in the research area Legrad-1 was awarded to the company GEO POWER ENERGY DEVELOPMENT d.o.o. (Zagreb). Furthermore, the company ENSOLX d.o.o. (Zagreb) was given two permits for research in the investigation areas “Ernestinovo” and “Nerhatovec”, while the company BUKO TERMAL d.o.o. (Mali Bukovec) attained the permit for researching geothermal waters in the exploration area “Lunjkovec-Kutnja”, otherwise in the ownership of the Varaždin County and municipality Mali Bukovec.
Let us recall that the Carbon-hydrogen Agency announced a tender in July of this year for the exploration of geothermal waters for energy purposes in four research areas for which nine bids were submitted by seven different bidders. The Committee for implementing the tender for the exploration of geothermal waters reviewed and assessed the submitted bids and in line with the law forwarded the proposal for the issuance of permits to the Ministry of the Economy and Sustainable Development.
As far as work programmes were concerned, namely, projects in respect to which the companies competed for, they primarily applied for geothermal power plants that will contribute to sustainable, clean, and what is most important, stable generation of electric power.
Marijan Krpan, chairman of the management board of the Carbon-hydrogen Agency pointed out that the tenders are a clear indication that geothermal projects can play an important role in energy transition but also be backbone of green projects in the Republic of Croatia. Krpan also mentioned the particularly difficult circumstances in which the tender took place.
“We received bids for two exploration areas and attracted both investors and the local community. That is particularly important since the tender was announced when all the big companies ceased exploration projects due to the uncertainties caused by the pandemic. I believe successful geothermal projects will be developed on these locations. We have sufficient domestic know-how and experience as well as natural potentials which we have to channel into those renewable sources from which the economy and local community can have the greatest benefits”, Krpan pointed out.
It should be mentioned that solely the value of exploration works on these projects is estimated at almost 152 million HRK.
