Shallow geothermal energy database

Source of funding: European Economic Area Financial Mechanism 2014-2021

Programme: Energy and Climate Change

Status: Open from 15th July 2022 to 27th September 2022 at 12:00h CET

Type of call: Open Call for Project Proposals/temporary

Competent authority: Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds

Call allocation: 200.000,00 EUR

Grant amount per project:  5.000,00 – 200.000,00 EUR

Project grant rate: 100%

Project duration: 12 – 15 months

The eligible applicants: any entity, public or private, commercial or non-commercial and non-governmental organization, established as a legal person in the Republic of Croatia.

The eligible partners: any public or private entity, commercial or non-commercial, and  non-governmental organization established as a legal person in donor states (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) or the Republic of Croatia.

Eligible area: the selected projects will be implemented in the area of the Republic of Croatia. Additionally, bilateral cooperation activities can be implemented on the territory of Donor States.

Summary

The Republic of Croatia has very favorable conditions for using renewable energy sources (RES) due to its geographic position, geological setting and climate. In the Energy Strategy of the Republic of Croatia and the legislative framework on energy, renewable energy (including wind, sun, water, biomass and geothermal energy) is defined as a particular national interest.

Within this Call, shallow geothermal energy is defined as energy stored in the ground, and it is the energy source that cannot be used directly for heating since it requires a heat pump system for heat distribution.

Currently, there is no regulatory agency or institution that controls the heat pump or heat exchanger installations in Croatia, so it is impossible to estimate the total installed capacity or energy usage coming from the shallow geothermal energy. There is a need to improve the accuracy of all the relevant data regarding the installed capacity and heating and cooling energy obtained by using shallow geothermal energy sources in Croatia. For that purpose the focus of this call for proposals is to develop an online tool together with the database on shallow geothermal energy (SGE) potential and utilized SGE projects in Croatia. Besides the software solution development, the project promoter or project partners must prove they have access to shallow geothermal energy data and elaborate within the application form on how they plan to populate the developed database with available data.

The database, jointly with the online tool, should be used to aggregate and visualize the data regarding all the available technologies using shallow geothermal energy as a heat source. This implies both open (boreholes or water wells) and closed (systems circulating water-glycol mixtures in closed pipes of various configurations inserted at various depths) heat pump systems. The database should also give an overview of the key technical characteristics of the heat pump systems using shallow geothermal energy as a heat source.

This Call for Proposals finances projects proposed by eligible Croatian public or private entities, commercial or non-commercial, and non-governmental organizations established as legal persons that comply and refer to the Programme focus area: Renewable Energy. The expected outcome of the projects is Increased renewable energy production which needs to be indirectly achieved by the project implementation. The expected output is strengthened capacity to manage and promote renewable energy. The projects are also expected to indirectly contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and increased security of supply.

The Call shall support applications planning to develop the shallow geothermal energy database. The Call aims to increase knowledge about shallow geothermal potential in Croatia to facilitate a more considerable uptake of shallow geothermal energy. The Call shall support establishing a public database for shallow geothermal resources in Croatia.

THE FUNDING DECISION

The Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, in the role of the Programme Operator,  upon the completion of projects` selection within the Open Call for Project Proposals ”Shallow geothermal energy production”, a total value of 200.000,00 EUR, on 9^th December 2022 adopted the Funding Decision. Following the Funding Decision, the Project Contract will be concluded with the selected Applicant.

The Funding Decision may be found at the following link.

CALL FOR PROJECT PROPOSALS CLOSED

The Call for Project Proposals “Shallow geothermal energy database” is closed for applications on 27^th September 2022 at 12.00 CET, in accordance with the provisions of the published Call.

Documents and forms