The project opening conference for two projects that were approved for financing at the beginning of the year from the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 – Program “Energy and Climate Change” was held today in the Križevci Development Center and Technology Park.
These are the projects entitled ‘’Establishing a system for the production of geothermal energy in the area of the city of Križevci’’ and ‘’Creating technical documentation for the use of geothermal energy in the area of the city of Križevci’’, where the Lead Beneficiary is the City of Križevci.
In addition to thanking the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Regional Development and Funds of the European Union, and the Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar for the cooperation, Mayor Mario Rajn also thanked the project partners Komunalno poduzeće d.o.o. Križevci and the EFLA company from Iceland.
“After the Healing Places project, which was financed by Interreg Central Europe, where we started a little wider research on our geothermal well, these two projects are, I believe, the crown of all research works and technical documentation that we expect, all in order to move one step closer to the goal of we have a system of heating public buildings from geothermal potential. Our aspiration for this project and the one that will follow after the preparation of the technical documentation should be the completed by 2030, when we have set ourselves the goal that we really want to become an energy-independent city,” emphasized Mayor Mario Rajn.
In front of the Hrvoje Požar Energy Institute, Sanja Živković spoke, who especially emphasized that a large number of applications in the field of geothermal energy sources had arrived at the call for project proposals: “We hope that the implementation of these projects will give momentum to the establishment of a new energy image of the city of Križevci. We wish you much success in the implementation, and experts from the Hrvoje Požar Energy Institute are at your disposal.”
Lovre Karamarko spoke in front of the “Energy and Climate Change” program manager Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds: “You are one of the few who have double luck, two contracts have been awarded to you, and this is just a confirmation of how dedicated the expert team of your city worked. This certainly serves as a pledge to us that with professional guidance, your equipped team, the goals that have been set and the indicators that are clear to us, and the vision of geothermal energy represented by the Development Plan of your city and in general the Energy and Climate Change Program, where exceptional importance is placed precisely on geothermal energy, to be extremely successful.”
The representatives of Elfa h.f. from Iceland Haukur Asberg Hilmarsson and Hafsteinn Helgason, head of the Administrative Department for Economy, Finance, EU Funds and Public Procurement at City of Križevci, Ivan Biškup, and expert associate in waste management Nikolina Stipić at Komunalno poduzeće d.o.o. Križevci spoke more about the details of the project. The purpose of these projects is the use of geothermal potential for energy purposes for heating existing publicly owned buildings located in the immediate vicinity of the existing well, as well as for potential commercial use, and the expected results are to increase the production of energy from renewable sources, and the estimated annual production MWh from of geothermal energy 12,487MWh, while the estimated reduction of annual CO2 emissions is 2,500t per year.
The projects will be implemented from May 22, 2022 to April 30, 2024, with the value of the project ‘’Creating technical documentation for the use of geothermal energy in the area of the city of Križevci’’ EUR 410,400.00 and the value of the project ‘’Establishing a system for the production of geothermal energy in the area of the town of Križevci’’ EUR 507,580.00.
The project opening conference was attended by the Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway in the Republic of Croatia Homma Latif with her colleague, representatives of the Manager of the Energy and Climate Change Program at the Ministry of Regional Development and Funds of the European Union, representatives of the Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar, Deputy Mayor Danijel Šaško, mayors of the municipalities of Gornja Rijeka, Sveti Ivan Žabno and Sveti Petar Orehovec, dean of the College of Agriculture Križevci, Marcela Andreata-Koren, director of Komunalno poduzeće d.o.o. Križevci Martin Kozjak, Director of the Križevci Enterprise Center d.o.o. Jelena Velić and many other guests.