The BRGM report (Genter et al., 2004) identified the Pannonian basin in general, and
its part situated in Hungary in particular, as the most promising region in Europe
for EGS systems. A follow-up study ("European HDR/EGS resources: Future potential
development in Hungary", WP10, European Hot Dry Rock Project Soultz, 2005) provided
further clarifications about the geologic-geothermal conditions as well as about the
relevant legal, institutional, regulatory, market and social matters.
The following necessary prerequisites for EGS siting have been defined and evaluated:
sufficiently high in-situ rock temperatures, favorable seismo-tectonic settings,
suitable lithologies. In parallel, a suite of legal and market issues has been
clarified. The project work was then been performed and the report completed by a
Swiss/Hungarian team.
The geoscientific results are based on the most recent knowledge available in
Hungary. The geothermal conditions at depth have been evaluated and presented in
various maps (heat flow, geoisotherms); the geologic conditions as well (depth to the
Pre-Tertiary basement; abundance and distribution of crystalline rock types in the
basement). Granitoid rock types have been identified as the most promising candidates
for EGS reservoir development.
Special attention was given to the recent stress field and seismicity. To this end,
the now available information has been assembled and presented in two new maps.
The EGS evaluations boil down to the identification of numerous geographic areas with
pronounced attributes for hosting future EGS sites: the most promising regions for
EGS realizations in Hungary are located in the south-southeastern part of the
country, on the flanks of deep subbasins (i.e. Dráva, Makó, Békés, Nagykunság and
Derecske subbasins) or at the top of basement highs between those, in crystalline
(preferable granitoid) basement at ~4,000m depth. The present study has thus
identified several new, potential EGS sites in addition to those already identified
in the BRGM (2004) study (Dráva, Békés).

Reference
Genter A. et al. (2004) - Typologie des systèmes géothermiques HDR-HFR en Europe –
Rapport final, Open file report, BRGM/RP-53452-FR.

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