The Győr Geothermal System (north-west Hungary) produced a record volume of heat energy of more than one million gigajoules (GJ) in 2022, the system’s operator PannErgy announced on Thursday (20 April).
“It’s a wonderful feeling to work with partners, day after day, who care about environmental sustainability and selfless support to society as much as they care about business success. Without a doubt, the City of Győr and Audi Hungaria are such partners. In addition to professional knowledge, it is largely thanks to this that we can celebrate an unparalleled record of green heat energy transfer in Győr today. Such a responsible approach to business ensures that we will continue to achieve outstanding joint successes,” said Dénes Gyimóthy, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PannErgy.
The geothermal system in Győr consists of three production wells and two reinfection wells, the Bőny Heat Centre and the 17 kilometres long geothermal heat transport system. During the record-breaking year, the two largest users of heat energy were the City of Győr and Audi Hungaria, PannErgy said.
PannErgy delivers 1.8 PJ of geothermal heat to nearly 60,000 homes and other
institutions, with annual savings of nearly 80 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent GHG emissions in Hungary.
“We believe that economic success and sustainability go hand in hand. In this spirit, we have made ESG (Environment, Social & Governance) a core element of our Next Level strategy. Our Company has been carbon neutral on balance since 2020 and continues to work to reduce the environmental footprint of its operations. The use of geothermal energy is one of the pillars of our efforts. In the 2022-2023 heating season, it has allowed us to heat our factory units exclusively with geothermal energy, with the exception of a few weeks,” said Alfons Dintner, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi Hungaria.
In the area of ESG, PannErgy has been recognised with the “Responsibility, Sustainability & Corporate Governance” award at the Budapest Stock Exchange’s Best of BSE 2021 Awards.
Audi Hungaria has been using geothermal thermal energy since 2015. The company’s heat energy demand is equivalent to the heat energy consumption of around 5,700 households. Thanks to geothermal energy, the company has been able to reduce its annual carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 21,000 tonnes.
In recent years, Audi Hungaria has also taken steps in increasing circularity in its operations with almost 100 per cent of the generated waste recycled. For instance, thanks to the ‘Aluminium Closed Loop’ project, the company introduced a closed loop for aluminium.
