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28. Nov 2006 | First Geothermal Power Plant in Hungary
The World Bank has approved a US$3.7 million Geological Risk Insurance for Enex’s Hungarian Geothermal Project. The insurance policy comes from the World Bank-administered Geothermal Energy Development Fund (GeoFund) for the geothermal energy joint venture project, located in Zala County, in south-west Hungary. The GeoFund is funded by the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund and implemented jointly by the World Bank and the IFC.
The joint venture Hungarian project will test existing, abandoned, hydrocarbon exploration wells for the generation of geothermal energy. The wells were selected following Enex’s evaluation and feasibility study of close to 100 wells owned by MOL, out of thousands of hydrocarbon wells drilled in Hungary. The first two wells (Ortaháza Ny3 & Ortaháza Ny5) will be tested for hot water production to determine the optimum development size, which will depend upon the quantity and sustainability of the water flow rate.
The Geological Risk Insurance provides a refund of the major costs associated with the testing of the wells if the water flow rates do not achieve desired levels of the project. Following the well testing, the project objective is to construct the first geothermal power plant in Hungary. The geothermal power plant will provide 2-5 MW of renewable base load energy to the region and provide heat for industrial purposes and a multi-acre greenhouse agricultural operation.
The joint venture partners, in addition to Enex, include Green Rock Energy Ltd; a Perth based leading Australian developer of geothermal energy projects, and the Hungarian oil and gas company, MOL, which is also the operator of the Joint Venture.
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