Stakeholder meeting, capacity building and site visit in Szeged, Hungary

InnoGeo Ltd organized the 3rd capacity building and stakeholder engagement event of the User4GeoEnergy project in May 2023. The event served 3 purposes

-             introducing the project and its outputs as well as future User4GeoEnergy services to Hungarian heating providers, energy sector enterprises and academics

-             providing an opportunity for both donor and beneficiary partners to familiarize themselves with the robust geothermal developments in Szeged

-             showcase the blueprints of the Geothermal District Heating Service Hubs to the consortium

The Hungarian visit started and ended in Budapest with the majority of the technical events taking place in Szeged. The morning of 8 May saw all partners presenting their institutions and activities to the 30+ strong audience. Then, after a light lunch the delegation was shown the drilling rigs and the largest heating plants in Szeged.

Media outlets Szeged TV and szeged.hu were present and both covered the events: the meeting was featured in the evening news program of the TV channel (https://fb.watch/kxVVx2vygd/) which included interviews with Hungarian, Slovakian and Norwegian representatives. A 400-word article was devoted to the events at szeged.hu (https://szeged.hu/cikk/ez-nem-vicc-idejottek-reykjavikbol-tanulni-a-geotermiat) which highlighted that the purpose of the meeting was to increase capacities about geothermal.

Among the attendees were representatives of DH companies, researchers from the University of Szeged, and personnel from a number of the enterprises of the South Great Plain Geothermal Energy Cluster.

Photos from the event in Hungary can be found here.

Presentation from the event in Hungary can be found be found here.

Site visits, technical study visits and stakeholder consultations in Slovakia

In continuation with previous capacity building events and site visits, SLOVGEOTERM a.s. organized site visits, technical study visits and stakeholder consultation event in Slovakia in May 2023. The Event was focused both for project partners form Poland, Norway, Iceland and Hungary as well as for local district heating system (DHS) operators. Project partners had an opportunity to visit personally local geothermal district heating systems and obtained detailed technical information. Local DHS operators were informed about preliminary results of the User4GeoEnergy project and discussed about potential benefits of adjusting district heating system customers characteristics.

Event started by gathering project partners in Bratislava on 10 May 2023 evening. Site visit to the Galanta geothermal DHS (Galantaterm spol. s r.o.) took place the next day. The very first Slovak geothermal DHS was introduced to participants, the heat exchanger station (figure 1) and two production wells were visited, as well as the settlement in the closest vicinity. This project is a good example of appropriate design and sustainable development since it is being operated for more than 27 years without any significant complications. The next stop after lunch was the geothermal DHS in Velky Meder (Mestský podnik bytového hospodárstva, s.r.o.), which is the newest project of its kind implemented in Slovakia. Participants got all relevant information about DHS operation and talked to local crew. Afterwards the delegation traveled back to Bratislava.

Workshop intended for information sharing took place on 12 May 2023 in Bratislava. Except of the project partners, representatives of DHS companies, media sector, non-governmental sector and universities were invited. After brief project introduction, all organizations participating on User4GeoEnergy project were presented and information about ongoing projects and activities were told. Next point of the event was precise presentation of the preliminary result of the project focused on Slovak DHS. Short lunch took place afterwards.

Then three new extensive geothermal projects in Slovakia were presented by their project managers. In particular, these were:

• Geothermal project in Kosice region
• Geothermal project in Prešov region
• Geothermal project Žiar nad Hronom region

Photos from the event in Slovakia can be found here.

Presentation from the event in Slovakia can be found be found here.