Zagreb, Croatia

Overview

The ConnectHeat’s activities will be focused on the neighbourhood of the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering (RGNF), located in Zagreb’s city centre. The Faculty employs more than 150 people and more than 800 students attend the classes. Zagreb has a district heating system based mostly on natural gas. The current level of annual heat consumption is 24,659 MWh and calculated CO2 emissions amount to 5,430 t/year. None of the energy consumed is covered by renewable energy sources (RES) and the Faculty is looking into possibilities to use the existing and new geothermal sources for heating.

The objective of the feasibility study in the Croatian demonstration site is to determine the optimal variant of renewable energy technology using a heat pump for heating, cooling, and domestic hot water preparation. This aims to encourage the use of geothermal energy for decarbonisation purposes. The first results of the study will be known in January 2025.

The primary mission of this project is to demonstrate the impact of the construction of the mentioned plant (geothermal heat pump) to achieve a certain level of energy self-sufficiency for Faculty through energy savings and the utilisation of free, local renewable energy sources. The heat produced will also be distributed to other nearby faculty buildings through district heating. The secondary mission is to encourage citizens, business people, the academic community, and/or investors to increase the use of renewable energy sources by establishing an energy community, in this case, between RGNF and the surrounding faculties and the sports hall.

Ambition, vision and expected objectives

  1. To analyse the potential of the geothermal wells within the Faculty’s area and to identify scalable business models for utilising the geothermal potential in the area;
  2. To analyse the technical and economic feasibility of the development of a small geothermal-based district heating network in the urban neighbourhood and to co-create a viable model for citizen participation in the implementation of the developed system;
  3. To support the local community energy project in the engagement of citizens and local stakeholders in the development of the system model and the overall energy transition of their community and region.