The geothermal water in the town of Sapareva Banya is known as the hottest mineral water in all of Europe (103°C) and the only active Geyser in the Balkans. A few years ago the government developed a new geothermal source called “Geizera”. A system for delivering the hot water to 5 municipal buildings had been built, but until 2001 only 4 of them were heated. The goal of the present project was first to reconstruct and modernize the kindergarten “St Anna” and then connect it to the geothermal heat distributing system of the town. As there are other geothermal sources in this mountain and in Bulgaria in general, studies for other energy efficient geothermal energy projects can be multiplied.

The Environmental Association “Za Zemiata” performed energy saving measures in the already geothermally-heated municipal buildings in order to use the geothermal energy thus saved for the heating of the kindergarten.

The heating system of “St Anna” is in operation since December 2002.

TECHNOLOGY

The existing local heating system uses a water boiler heated by burning oil (naphtha). During reconstruction of the heating system of the kindergarten the oil burning system was replaced by the geothermal heating plant which delivers the heat by water-water heat exchangers.

Annually 28 500 m³ of warm water and 1 368 000 kWh of heat can be produced by the new geothermal heating system. The lifetime of the installed capacity is approximately 25 years.

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ECONOMIC ASPECTS

80% of the total cost for reconstruction and modernization were financed from the governmental Eco-Trust Fund, the remaining 20% from the municipal budget. Additionally many local volunteers – mostly unemployed people and volunteers from Za Zemiata – took part in implementing the energy efficiency measures of the project.
With this project the heating of the building was assured for a significantly lower price annually, because the system uses the already “used” preheated water from the other 4 geothermally-heated municipal buildings (28 500 m³/year is heated for EUR 28 500). The savings per year due to the new investment amount to EUR 62 300.
The expected payback period was estimated at 3.8 heating seasons (190 days per year).

It is also good to mention that the fees collected bring an additional benefit, because they are paid into eco-funds and 30% goes back to the budget of the Municipal Administration.

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SOCIAL EFFECTS

The project concept was developed by Energy for Sustainable Development - Bulgaria Ltd. as part of the “Local sustainable energy plan” of the municipality of Sapareva Banya. As the municipality is quite small, local people were familiar with the project. An info-table was put up in the centre of the town and Za Zemiata distributed brochures on energy efficiency. Further information is available on the web-page of Za Zemiata www.zazemiata.org/energy and of ESD-Bulgaria http://www.esdb.bg/index.pl?l=1.

During the project implementation 3 experts and 5 workers (3 of them unemployed) were employed, but for the operation no new workforce is needed. The project increased the environmental knowledge of the population about sustainable use of energy.

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ENVIROMENTAL EFFECTS

Due to the fuel shift from oil to geothermal energy 160 000 kg naphtha (oil) per year can be saved. This leads to an amount of about 576 tonnes of carbon dioxide saved per year. Also the air pollution around the kindergarten decreased significantly.

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DIFFICULTIES, PROBLEMS

One of the expected results of the project was that some of the unemployed people involved would try to start their own business, e.g. with energy efficiency windows weatherisation. Unfortunately this did not happen, probably because the technique demonstrated needed expensive imported materials.

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FOLLOW UP

There are plans to expand the existing municipal heating system by including new geothermal sources.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Todor Slavov
Environmental Association „Za Zemiata”
P.O. Box 975
Sofia 1000
Bulgaria

Tel: +359 2 943 1123
E-mail: energy@zazemiata.org
Web: www.zazemiata.org/energy

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