The RES potential in Bulgaria is considerable. According to the PHARE BG 9307-03-01 Project Final Report data, the RES potential is evaluated to 14387 OJ/year for geothermal energy.

The geothermal water in Sapareva Banya town is known as the hottest mineral water in all of Europe (103 degrees C) and the only active Geyser in the Balkans. A few years ago the government developed a new geothermal source called "Gaizera". There was built a system for delivering the hot water to 5 municipal buildings but until 2001 only 4 of them were heated. The goal of the present project is to reconstruct and modernize the kindergarten "St Anna" and connect it to the geothermal heat distributing system of the town. The Ministry of the Environment and Waters negotiated a fee of 2 leva (=1 Euro) per cubic meter of the preheated water. For the heating of the kindergarten with fuel (naphtha) 357 euro are needed per day. After the implementation of the project the consumption will decrease to 30 euro/day. The heating season is 190 days and the consumption of fuel is 160 tones with average of 68 000 euro (recently more - n.a.). With this project the heating of the building was assured for only 5 700 euro annually, because it used the already "used" preheated water from the first 4 buildings ( 28 500 cubic m/year for 28 500 euro). The comparison of the amounts from the saved fuel with the expenses for paying the fee for the geothermal water shows real high annual savings for heating. It is also good to mention that the collected fees bring additional effect, because they are paid in eco-funds and 30 % goes back to the budget of the Municipal Administration.

We should also mention the common project for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in 4 municipal buildings carried out by Environmental Association "Za Zemiata" (For the Earth) and the Municipality of Sapareva Banya. Under the project of the Bulgarian Energy Brigades Za Zemiata trained local unemployed people and with their help as well as with the help of some volunteers they implemented effective solutions to compensate for the great heat loses leaked through windows and doors which previously lacked insulation. One of the goal of the project was to save energy from the buildings heated with geothermal energy and to allocate it to the new one: the kindergarten "St. Anna".

The total amount for reconstruction and modernization of the heating system - 92486 euro
Savings per year - 62 300 euro
Pay-back period - 1.5 years
Saved fuel per year - 160 000 kg naphtha