Podhale Geothermal District Heating & Environment Project

The primary development objective of the Podhale Geothermal district Heating is to reduce air pollution from local coal-fired space-heating boilers through increased utilization of clean energy resources such as geothermal heat and natural gas in the Podhale region of southern Poland. There are five project components. The first supports drilling geothermal wells for production and re-injection to cover the base-load heat demand for the entire service area; constructs a geothermal district heating plant, an absorption heat pump plant, and a natural gas plant; and expanding the existing district heating infrastructure. The second component builds a new heat distribution network. The third component installs heat exchanges and meters in individual households and other buildings. The fourth component, the project management component, supports the institutional strengthening of the district heating enterprise(PEC/GP) with an emphasis on providing technical consultant services and specialized services such as financial management and auditing. The fifth component is aimed at monitoring and evaluating the global environmental benefits from the project, that is, making a credible assessment of carbon reductions, which in turn helps establish the potential for a broader introduction of geothermal district heating in Poland and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe.