According to Petratherm, the GDH project will be the first application of geothermal district heating in the region, one of 6 renewable energy projects of interest within the Madrid Regional Government’s Renewable Energy Cluster Project.

Its first customers will include various departments of the Madrid Regional Government itself.

As part of the deal a committee - formed from the Spanish government and Petratherm - will work on making the project viable. It will also be backed with an Euro 87,000 contribution from the Spanish Government towards a feasibility study.

The committee’s immediate aims include coming to an agreement with customers for the supply of heat; assessing subsidy and financing options available from Government programs; obtaining environmental clearances in order to begin development work and establishing a competitive operations and maintenance contract.

GDH plants can provide higher efficiencies and better pollution control than localised boilers in communities, and the Madrid project in particular will provide a foundation to expand other applications across Petratherm’s large tenement north of the city.