Aspects of current geothermal application in Bulgaria

The territory of Bulgaria is rich in thermal water of temperature in the range of 20 degrees C-100 degrees C. Electricity generation from geothermal water is not currently available in the country. Direct thermal water use nowadays is mainly for balneology, space heating and air-conditioning, greenhouse heating, geothermal ground source heat pumps (GSHP), direct thermal water supply, and bottling of potable water and soft drinks. Several applications such as balneology and geothermal ground source heat pumps show more stable development in the current period, while geothermal energy used for heating of buildings and greenhouses has considerably decreased. The update information on hydrothermal fields is based on issued permits and concessions by the state since 2000 and concerns mainly state-owned hydrothermal fields. The current installed capacity amounts to about 85.8 MW (excl. GSHP). A progress has been recently made in the state policy promoting thermal water utilization. According to the latest amendments of the Water Act taxes for thermal water application are considerably reduced, and many state-owned reservoirs are made available for use by the municipalities. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.