Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Geothermal Country Notes

Hungary
Hungary possesses very considerable geothermal resources and it has been estimated that the country has the largest underground thermal water reserves and geothermal potential (low and medium enthalpy) in Europe.

To date, there has been no utilisation of geothermal energy for the production of electricity. The principal applications of geothermal power used directly are for balneological purposes, greenhouse heating, space heating, industrial process heat and other uses. It has been reported that geothermal heat pumps represent an additional 4  MWt.

There are around 3 000 abandoned oil industry exploration wells that may potentially be transformed for geothermal use. In late-2006 it was announced that the Hungarian Oil and Gas Company (MOL) was working in conjunction with Enex of Iceland and Green Rock Energy of Australia, and with support from the World Bank's Geothermal Energy Development Fund (GeoFund) would be undertaking a pre-feasibility study on the possibility of building a 2-5 MWe geothermal power plant at Iklódbördöce in western Hungary. Drilling is taking place in disused hydrocarbon exploration wells. The plant would supply its surplus heat for agricultural, industrial purposes and district heating.