Croatia: Geothermal power plant to be built in Legrad

Last month, the Croatian Government passed a regulation on quotas to encourage the production of electricity from renewable energy sources and high-efficiency cogeneration. According to that document, 20 MW of installed capacity was approved for geothermal power plants, and it is precisely the amount MK Holding will ask for its power plant being constructed in Legrad.

The company expects to get the support of the Croatian Government because it went the furthest from all those interested in geothermal power Croatia with its Legrad geothermal power plant project. The power plant project has been created, and the only obstacle is the county spatial planning situation, according to which the current version in Legrad doesn’t actually provide for a thermal power plant.

The geothermal power plant in Legrad will be built with advanced technology, and unlike the previous project of Velika 1 geothermal power plant near Bjelovar, here the carbon dioxide released in the process of steam exploitation will be returned together with warm water into the reservoir. There are also plans to use geothermal water for other purposes in addition to producing electricity. It was announced that the remaining water, after passing through steam turbines, could be used to heat a greenhouse and to produce vegetables.

Last September, MB Holding signed an agreement with local project design company Ekonerg on the design of the future 19.9 MW geothermal power plant in Legrad. The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plant will be build in Legrad, near the city of Koprivnica in northern Croatia, and will produce some 165 GWh of electricity per year. In November 2019, a 16.5 MW geothermal power plant Velika 1 near Bjelovar, MK Holding investment worth some 43.7 million euros, was officially commissioned.