Geothermal district heating in Győr
Overview
Győr is the main city of northwest Hungary of 130 000 inhabitants and it is situated halfway between Vienna and Budapest.
The system of Győr (52 MWth) is unique in Hungary in that it has a three-production-wells system. It provides heating for district heating services, which served nearly 24,000 residential unit since 2017.
The geothermal system of Győr contributes to a great extent to the achievement of the goals set by the Hungarian National Energy Strategy. It makes it possible to decrease the quantity of greenhouse gases by approximately 67 000 tonnes on a yearly basis and to decrease the use of natural gas, with full capacity, by 35 million m3 on an annual basis.
Geothermal energy was also a response to the energy crisis in Győr. Because of the increase of heating prices, the city had to plan to move several schools into one building or to introduce afternoon classe to spare use of gas. The local thermal water system, which was previously out of use for 19 years, has been put into operation and made it possible for the schools to stay open. This is the case for the Bercsényi School in Győr, which has nearly 1,000 students where education can continue as usual thanks to geothermal energy.
“There is no doubt, that the best green energy is the geothermal energy, because the produced heat is constant, and to provide energy security, it does not require operation of balancing power plants, which use fossil energy. For the perspective of the air quality of the region, the start of the heat production without any pollution, is like if from now on, all cars of the City of Györ would transport without fuel consumption and with no gas emissions.”
Technical details
A 15-year heat supply contract was signed in September 2014 between Gyor and Gyor geothermal project was delivered in November 2015 inaugurating the Bony heat center. The Gyor geothermal system is transformed into a three production wells system in 2018, which makes it unique in Hungary.
The capacity of the BON-PE-03 production well with pump-assisted extraction reaches 765 m3/h. Based on the evaluation of the results – as depending on the prevailing weather conditions – the expanded system is foreseen to be capable of delivering 840-850 TJ green heat annually in the current consumer structure, with the supply of less than expected electric power.
Summary
Depth of drilling: 2-3km
Total length of wells: 17km
Geothermal power: 46 MW
Temperature of the water drawn: 101,4 °C
Units covered: 40% of the total heat requirement of nearly 24 thousand homes and more than a thousand other customers in the Győr district heating system. 60% of heating required by vehicle-manufacturer Audi Hungarians' plant
Total amount of investments: HUF 10,2 billion ($36 million)
Public contribution: HUF 2 billion ($7 million) non-repayable EU grants, in addition to the investor’s own funds and a project loan, HUF 2 bln grant from the government and a €20.3 million loan from the Hungarian Export-Import Bank
CO2 emissions avoided: 67 000 tons of CO2 avoided per year