Mannvit Engineering is involved in an extensive geothermal energy development project in Hungary. The developer of the project is the privately owned Pannergy of Hungary, with Mannvit supplying the engineering consulting. When complete, the project will provide heating for at least 70,000 homes and a new future source of electricity - at a cost of between €350-500 million.
The project began in 2006 and in that time Mannvit has completed geological and geophysical testing over all of Hungary, followed by more detailed testing at specific locations to determine actual well locations. Site-specific work included well design and drilling supervision as well as design of utility integration.
Initial project details:
- Evaluation of all potential geothermal areas in Hungary (database contains 7,000 wells)
- Audio magnetotelluric surveys, magnetotelluric soundings, and gravity surveys of 460 km of MT lines and 1,800 gravity stations
- Seismic interpretations, 400 lines have been selected
- Integrated interpretation of all geological and geophysical data in Southwest Hungary, resulting in siting of first exploratory well
KMS Technologies
has provided geophysical technology to Mannvit Engineering for turn-key
services and solutions for geothermal energy and power development to
PannErgy. This discovery was possible by utilizing different
geophysical and geological information to determine the well location.
The drilling was targeted by integrating natural source electromagnetic
(AMT/MT) and gravity methods from
KMS Technologies with seismic and
stratigraphic information.
This project builds on a long tradition of geothermal heat utilization in Hungary, particularly in connection with health spas. Hungarians have extensive experience in drilling of wells both for water and oil and gas exploration. This presents an ideal scenario for grafting Mannvit’s experience in geothermal development in Iceland onto the existing knowledge of the field in Hungary so as to build up a base for the company’s operations in Europe.
In 2008, Mannvit opened a branch office in Budapest, Hungary. This office, Mannvit kft, employs eleven Hungarian engineers and specialists. In addition to handling work in Hungary, Mannvit kft. is actively working on projects in Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovia, Romania, Greece and Turkey. Projects handled by Mannvit kft. are mostly connected with the harnessing of geothermal energy, but the company has also undertaken work in other technical fields.