Bilateral Projects

The National Energy Authority has been involved in several bilateral projects with Poland in recent years. Two projects are currently underway from 2021 to 2024. One of them is the KeyGeothermal project, a capacity building and training project in geothermal energy, formally launched in February 2021 in Poland and will continue until 2024. The goal of the project is to build knowledge among key stakeholders in Poland regarding geothermal utilization and resource management, with an emphasis on heating using renewable energy sources to mitigate climate change. Additionally, the aim was to enhance and increase cooperation between Iceland and Poland in these areas, but due to Covid-19, actions were postponed that year.

The main activities in 2022 included training courses in Poland to enhance the development and utilization of geothermal heating, which has socio-economic, environmental, and climate benefits. The project also involved visits and courses in Iceland and visits by experts to selected areas in Poland. These project activities will continue throughout 2023.

Another project of The National Energy Authority, User4GeoEnergy, which focuses on improving geothermal energy utilization through changing user behaviour, began in October 2020 and will continue until 2023. The project is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through the EEA Structural Fund in the field of community development. The project's goal is to enhance the efficiency of district heating systems in Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia to increase sustainability and reduce air pollution and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. These objectives should contribute to increased popularity of district heating systems utilizing geothermal energy in cities and simultaneously emphasize the fight against climate change. Data and other information were collected in all these countries, and the project was visited by Iceland in 2022.

The project concerns the dissemination of knowledge on practical aspects related to the management and operation of geothermal district heating systems between Iceland and Norway on one hand and Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary on the other hand. Furthermore, work is being done on the development of a mathematical model of geothermal systems (heat source – heat distribution – users) to analyze viable solutions for geothermal supply in Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary based on geothermal conditions and domestic price levels.